Cell Therapy in the Heart: Cell Production, Transplantation, and Applications

Cardiac dysfunction resulting from various insults to the myocardium can ultimately lead to the development of heart failure. Owing to the limited regenerative capacity of adult cardiac tissue and the lack of a resident cardiac progenitor cell equivalent to the skeletal myoblast, the transplantation of myogenic cells into the myocardium has been investigated as a novel mechanism to repair damaged and dysfunctional myocardium. For maximal impact on cardiac function, the design of cellular therapies must carefully consider the identity of the transplanted cells as well as the method of cell delivery. This review details techniques for the purification of commonly investigated cell grafts, including skeletal myoblasts and mesenchymal stem cells, and the methods to deliver these grafts to the myocardium of laboratory animals.