Human embryonic stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes restore function in infarcted hearts of non-human primates.

Pluripotent stem cell-derived cardiomyocyte grafts can remuscularize substantial amounts of infarcted myocardium and beat in synchrony with the heart, but in some settings cause ventricular arrhythmias. It is unknown whether human cardiomyocytes can restore cardiac function in a physiologically relevant large animal model. Here we show that transplantation of ∼750 million cryopreserved human embryonic stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes (hESC-CMs) enhances cardiac function in macaque monkeys with large myocardial infarctions.