Heart stem cells: hope or myth?

Abstract

The search and study of endogenous heart repair remains an urgent issue in modern regenerative medicine. It is generally accepted that the human heart has a limited regenerative potential, but recent studies show that functionally significant regeneration is possible. However, the mechanisms underlying these processes remain poorly understood. In the heart, there are populations of resident mesenchymal cells that have some properties of stem cells that carry certain markers, such as c-kit+, Sca-1, etc. The ability of these cells to differentiate directly into cardiomyocytes remains controversial, but their use in clinical trials has shown improved cardiac function in patients with myocardial infarction. Currently, approaches are being developed to use, mainly, induced pluripotent stem cells as a promising regenerative therapy, but the cardioprotective role of cardiac mesenchymal cells remains the subject of active study due to their paracrine signaling.