Understanding the application of stem cell therapy in cardiovascular diseases

Abstract

Throughout their lifetime, an individual may sustain many injuries and recover spontaneously over a period of time, without even realizing the injury in the first place. Wound healing occurs due to a proliferation of stem cells capable of restoring the injured tissue. The ability of adult stem cells to repair tissue is dependent upon the intrinsic ability of tissues to proliferate. The amazing capacity of embryonic stem cells to give rise to virtually any type of tissue has intensified the search for similar cell lineage in adults to treat various diseases including cardiovascular diseases. The ability to convert adult stem cells into pluripotent cells that resemble embryonic cells, and to transplant those in the desired organ for regenerative therapy is very attractive, and may offer the possibility of treating harmful disease-causing mutations. The race is on to find the best cells for treatment of cardiovascular disease. There is a need for the ideal stem cell, delivery strategies, myocardial retention, and time of administration in the ideal patient population. There are multiple modes of stem cell delivery to the heart with different cell retention rates that vary depending upon method and site of injection, such as intra coronary, intramyocardial or via coronary sinus. While there are crucial issues such as retention of stem cells, microvascular plugging, biodistribution, homing to myocardium, and various proapoptotic factors in the ischemic myocardium, the regenerative potential of stem cells offers an enormous impact on clinical applications in the management of cardiovascular diseases.

Human Umbilical Cord Blood-Derived CD133+CD34+ Cells Protect Retinal Endothelial Cells and Ganglion Cells in X-Irradiated Rats through Angioprotective and Neurotrophic Factors

“…Although treatment trials have been successfully conducted that minimize the complications, they have failed to address the pathological events caused by radiotherapy. In recent years, stem cell therapies have been proposed as a treatment option for degenerative diseases and disorders, including myocardial infarction, vascular diseases, motor neuron diseases, and neurodegenerative diseases ( Sharma et al, 2012 ). Our previous clinical trial showed that mesenchymal stem cells are potentially safe and effective in treating degenerated retinas ( Gu et al, 2018 ; Zhao et al, 2020 ).…”

Therapeutic Potential of Stem Cells Strategy for Cardiovascular Diseases

“…Application of stem cells to therapeutic devices and methods may lead to effective and rapid myocardium regeneration and eventually affect cardiovascular morbidity and mortality [44]. There are different types of stem cells such as embryonic stem cells, adult stem cells, and induced pluripotent stem cells for treatment of CVDs (Table 1).…”

“…This cell population is called ESCs and follows irreversible process of differentiation to become specialized [44, 46]. ESCs have pluripotency, with the capacity of differentiation into approximately 210 different cell types, making them an up-and-coming stem cell source for cell-based tissue engineering [44]. ESCs can be differentiated into cardiomyocytes, endothelial cells, and vascular smooth muscle cells [17, 18, 47, 48].…”

“…ESCs can be differentiated into cardiomyocytes, endothelial cells, and vascular smooth muscle cells [17, 18, 47, 48]. Owing to their potential for use in the treatment of CVDs, efforts for stem cell therapy have been concentrated on the differentiation of human ESCs into the cardiac lineage directly [44, 49]. …”