ABSTRACT
Cardiovascular diseases have become an increasing clinical issue worldwide. Acute ischaemic injury and chronic cardiomyopathies lead to permanent loss of cardiac tissue and ultimately heart failure. Current therapies widely aim to attenuate the pathological changes that occur after injury and to reduce risk factors of cardiovascular diseases. However, they do not improve the patient's quality of life or the prognosis more than moderate. A new challenge in the treatment of the cardiovascular disease is cellular transplantation or cellular cardiomyoplasty. Different types of stem cells have been used for stem cell therapy. Clinical trials using primary bone-marrow-derived cells and skeletal myoblasts have also shown some encouraging results. An additional clinical and pre-clinical study to further enhance the beneficial effects of cell therapy is necessary. Recent studies have shown that there are various pools of putative resident stem cells in an adult heart, raising the hope that these cells can contribute to the treatment of cardiovascular diseases.
