ABSTRACT
In a paper published in 1995 entitled ‘Cellular cardiomyoplasty: myocardial regeneration with satellite cell implantation',1 we suggested the term ‘cellular cardiomyoplasty’ to indicate a new therapeutic approach of using cells to repair damaged myocardium. Since then, in addition to the satellite cells derived from the skeletal muscle, many other stem cells and progenitor cells have been studied as donor cells to regenerate myocardial tissue. Notable among them are embryonic stem cells,2 adult stem cells, particularly those derived from the bone marrow,3 myoblasts4 and proendothelial cells. In this chapter, we will focus on studies that have used the marrow stromal cells (MSCs) as the donor cells, for a number of reasons. First, autologous MSCs can be readily obtained from the patient, which avoids the need for immunosuppression and bypasses the ethical controversies encounted with the use of embryonic stem cells. Second, unlike the myoblasts and other progenitor cells, which undergo lineage -determined differentiation, the MSCs contain multipotent cells. They have been shown to differentiate into many phenotypes, including those of cardiomyocytes and endothelial cells, both of crucial importance in myocardial repair.
