Abstract:

BACKGROUND: The repair of myocardial regeneration by cell transplantation is restricted by the source of cells, immune rejection, ethics and imprecise efficacy. Looking for a new kind of seed cells has become a trend in the field of myocardial regeneration. Numerous studies have demonstrated cardiac stem cells (CSCs) exist in the mammalian hearts. The research of CSCs has become a hotspot recently because of their differentiation into myocardial cells and participation in the endogenous repair of heart.
OBJECTIVE: To review the source, characteristics, induction factors of CSCs and its application in myocardial regeneration.
METHODS: We searched the Medline database (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed) from 2000 to 2009 for the relevant articles on the source, differentiation, characteristic of CSCs and the role in myocardial regeneration, including clinical and basic researches. The key words were “cardiac stem cell”. A total of 27 articles were analyzed after excluding the repeated studies and Meta analysis articles.
RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: CSCs are a kind of stem cells with self-renewal and proliferation potential. They can differentiate into many kinds of cells, such as myocardial cells, endothelial cells and vascular smooth muscle cells, and play an important role in the maintenance of self-stability and repair of heart. Many different phenotypes of CSCs have be found, which can take part in myocardial and vascular regeneration. The therapies on the basis of CSCs put forward a new way for the treatment of heart disease. Compared with other adult stem cells, CSCs should be a more reasonable cell source of the myocardial regenerative treatment.