Abstract

Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) are the leading cause of morbidity and mortality globally, and traditional pharmaceutical and surgical interventions delay the progression of CVDs. Recently, stem cell therapy has emerged as a promising candidate for treating and preventing heart failure. Increasing efforts have been devoted towards the exploration and identification of potential cell types to repair the injured heart, such as skeletal myoblasts, embryonic, induced pluripotent, bone marrowderived, mesenchymal, and resident cardiac stem cells. In addition, direct reprogramming of cardiac fibroblasts into cardiomyocytes represents a novel approach to cardiac regeneration. Herein, we summarize the recent progress in the use of various cell types for cardiac regeneration and discuss major challenges and future perspectives of cell-based therapies for CVDs.

Keywords: Cardiovascular diseases, regeneration, stem cells, cell-based therapy, direct cardiac reprogramming, clinical utility.