title: Stem Cell Therapy for the Heart: Blind Alley or Magic Bullet?
abstract: When stressed by ageing or disease, the adult human heart is unable to regenerate, leading to scarring and hypertrophy and eventually heart failure. As a result, stem cell therapy has been proposed as an ultimate therapeutic strategy, as stem cells could limit adverse remodelling and give rise to new cardiomyocytes and vasculature. Unfortunately, the results from clinical trials to date have been largely disappointing. In this review, we discuss the current status of the field and describe various limitations and how future work may attempt to resolve these to make way to successful clinical translation.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physiology, Anatomy, and Genetics, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.
authors.forename: Arne A N
authors.initials: AA
authors.lastname: Bruyneel
authors.affiliation: University of Oxford Medical School, Oxford, UK.
authors.forename: Apurv
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Sehgal
authors.affiliation: Department of Physiology, Anatomy, and Genetics, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.
authors.forename: Sophia
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Malandraki-Miller
authors.affiliation: Department of Physiology, Anatomy, and Genetics, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK. carolyn.carr@dpag.ox.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Carolyn
authors.identifier: 0000-0003-0102-5261
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Carr
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002454:Cell Differentiation; D049109:Cell Proliferation; D002470:Cell Survival; D002986:Clinical Trials as Topic; D006331:Heart Diseases / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000601:surgery*; D006801:Humans; D032383:Myocytes, Cardiac / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology / Q000637:transplantation*; D010641:Phenotype; D020127:Recovery of Function; D012038:Regeneration; D044968:Regenerative Medicine / Q000379:methods*; D015398:Signal Transduction; D033581:Stem Cell Transplantation / Q000009:adverse effects; D057170:Translational Research, Biomedical
keywords: Cardiac stem cells; Heart disease; Regenerative medicine; Stem cell therapy