Stem Cell Research on Cardiology

Dear Colleagues, 

Cardiovascular diseases are the leading cause of death in the developed countries with very limited therapeutic options. A major cause lies in the very rstricted regenerative capacity of terminally differentiated cardiomyocytes post injury – therefore novel approaches toward cardiac regenerative therapy is highly desired. Following injury oft he myocardium, resident cardiac fibroblasts, representing over 50% of the cells in the heart, start to proliferate and produce extracellular matrix, which will ultimately leads to fibrosis and heart failure. A large number of preclinical and clinical trials have shown stem cell therapy to be a promising therapeutic approach for the treatment of cardiovascular diseases. Since the first transplantation into human patients, several stem cell types have been applied in this field, including bone marrow derived stem cells, cardiac progenitors as well as embryonic and induced pluripotent stem cells and their derivatives. In addition, the novel field of direct cardiac reprogramming brougt promising advances in vitro and in vivo, opening an additional future field for cardiovascular regenerative medicine. In order to optimize these approaches, it will be crucial to elucidate the underlying mechanisms mediating the beneficial effects of stem cell transplantation or direct reprogramming. Based on these mechanisms, scientists have begun to develop different improvement strategies to boost the potency of stem cell repair and to generate the "next generation" of cell based therapeutics.

The current Special Issue will accept original studies, reviews and technical reports in the field of cardiovascular stem cell biology and reprogramming, written by scientists active in the field.

Prof. Robert David
Guest Editor

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