ABSTRACT
Ischemic heart disease (IHD) is the main problem within cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) and the number one cause of morbidity and mortality in the world owing to aging, obesity, diabetes, and other comorbid diseases. Current therapies include behavioral and dietary modications, pharmacological treatments, and invasive surgical interventions (i.e., coronary artery bypass grafting and percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty). These therapeutic interventions can mitigate the symptoms; however, they are not able to halt massive loss of functioning cardiomyocytes, which signicantly affect the long-term benecial consequences of treatment in terms of contractile function. In addition, for a number of patients, the only alternative is heart transplantation, with the problems of availability and graft rejection. Transplantation of stem cells from various sources has been carried out in animal models and clinical trials to repair the damaged heart (Henning 2011; Strauer and Steinhoff 2011; Templin et al. 2011; Tongers et al. 2011). However, stem cells are highly sensitive to ischemic niche. It is therefore imperative to grow a vascular network that would adequately nourish the transplanted stem cells as well as the ischemic heart. Therapeutic angiogenesis, in this regard, represents tremendous potential as a therapeutic strategy to treat patients with IHD.
