Review article: current status of myocardial regeneration: new cell sources and new strategies.

Clinical trials of stem cell therapy in cardiology are based upon a reasonably solid foundation in animal laboratory research. The most widely used cell source in clinical trials has been the patient's own reconstituted bone marrow cell (BMC) aspirate. Cell sources in human bone marrow include hematopoietic stem cells, mesenchymal progenitor cells, and other cell types with many desirable characteristics.

Cardiomyocyte-mediated contact programs human mesenchymal stem cells to express cardiogenic phenotype.

Background: Intercellular crosstalk and cellular plasticity are key factors in embryogenesis and organogenesis. The microenvironment plays a critical role in directing the progression of stem cells into differentiated cells. We hypothesized that intercellular interaction between adult human mesenchymal stem cells and adult human cardiomyocytes would induce stem cells to acquire the phenotypical characteristics of cardiomyocytes, and we tested the role that direct cell-to-cell contact plays in directing this differentiation process.

Transformation of adult mesenchymal stem cells isolated from the fatty tissue into cardiomyocytes.

Background: Myocardial infarction results in the death of cardiomyocytes, which are replaced by scar tissue. Cardiomyocytes cannot regenerate because they are terminally differentiated. Mesenchymal cells are pluripotent cells, which have the potential to differentiate to specialized tissues under appropriate stimuli.