Prevention and treatment of cardiovascular disease are important issues, especially in the Western world, where ischemic heart disease and its consequences are the leading cause of death.
With the aging of the population and improvements in short-term survival rates after myocardial infarction (MI) over the past decades, the number of patients with heart failure is increasing. Despite significant efforts to improve their condition through lifestyle changes and medications, the natural course of the disease cannot be stopped, and the gradual progression to severe cardiac dysfunction and death is generally inevitable. The mammalian heart is unable to regenerate the large number of cardiomyocytes (CMs) lost after an infarction. Adaptive mechanisms, such as cardiac hypertrophy, are initially beneficial but eventually become detrimental.
The only therapeutic option is heart transplantation, but this is limited by donor availability and transplant rejection. If it were possible to regenerate the heart muscle by replacing the lost CMCs, these problems could be circumvented. Current studies are focusing on stem cells, which are currently being investigated for their potential in cardiac regeneration. These strategies include stem cells derived from embryonic stem cells and adult tissue, as well as reactivating resident cells that survived the initial damage to the heart muscle.
