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Brain & Heart Stem cells in cardiovascular disease

reduced infarct size within 24 h and improved cardiac and reporting standards is essential to improve rigor,
function over 28 days compared with that in untreated reproducibility, and transparency in MSC research.
controls.
5. Conclusion
hiPSCs are used to generate cardiomyocytes (hiPSC-
CMs) for investigating cardiac diseases. Nevertheless, these Stem cell research has the potential to revolutionize cardiac
cells often resemble immature, fetal-like cardiomyocytes, care by providing innovative treatment strategies for
limiting their use in disease modeling and drug testing. heart disease. Continued advancements and collaborative
29
Recent advancements, such as culturing hiPSC-CMs in 3D efforts are essential for overcoming existing challenges and
microtissue environments or cardiac maturation media for unlocking the complete potential of stem cell therapies.
15 – 18 days, have resulted in cells that are approximately
50% closer to adult heart cells in gene expression. Matured Acknowledgments
29
hiPSC-CMs exhibit improved structure, mechanics, and None.
electrophysiology, including better contractile strength and
calcium cycling. For diseases linked to SCN5A mutations, Funding
such as Brugada syndrome, matured hiPSC-CMs provide None.
better disease modeling. Ongoing research aims to further
improve maturation using electrical stimulation and 3D Conflict of interest
cultures. 30
The authors declare that they have no competing interests.
The combination of stem cell therapy with tissue
engineering demonstrates significant promise for heart Author contributions
regeneration, disease modeling, drug testing, and valvular Conceptualization: Aliki Iliadou, Panteleimon Pantelidis
disease treatment. Nevertheless, unlike chemical drugs,
cellular therapies are complex, and variability in cell Visualization: Aliki Iliadou, Panteleimon Pantelidis,
culture conditions poses difficulties. Selecting the precise Georgios Paparoidamis
biocompatible material, having porosity and elasticity that Writing–original draft: All authors
match cardiac mechanics and support neovascularization, Writing–review & editing: All authors
is crucial. These materials must ensure effective cell Ethics approval and consent to participate
adhesion and controlled degradation as well as avoid toxic
byproducts. As there is no single ideal material for cardiac Not applicable.
regeneration, researchers select biocompatible materials
based on desired properties for optimal outcomes. Consent for publication
The implementation of stem cell therapies on a large Not applicable.
scale requires developing standardized clinical protocols, Availability of data
quality control measures, and strong regulatory oversight
to ensure patient safety and ethical compliance, as Not applicable.
outlined by the ISSCR guidelines. Despite their potential,
31
PSCs face significant ethical and regulatory challenges. References
Although MSCs have gained prominence in biomedical 1. Muharram FR, Multazam CE, Mustofa A, et al. The 30 years
research, variability in their isolation, expansion, and cell of shifting in the Indonesian cardiovascular burden-analysis
characterization methods complicates the comparison of the global burden of disease study. J Epidemiol Glob
of results. To address this issue, the International Society Health. 2024;14(1):193-212.
for Cellular Therapy proposed minimal criteria to define doi: 10.1007/s44197-024-00187-8
human MSCs in 2006. Since then, researchers such as
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Rojewski et al. and Codinach et al. have developed 2. Heng BC, Haider HK, Sim EK, Cao T, Ng SC. Strategies
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reproducible bioprocesses for manufacturing MSC-based for directing the differentiation of stem cells into
the cardiomyogenic lineage in vitro. Cardiovasc Res.
products for clinical applications using closed systems 2004;62(1):34-42.
that require minimal manipulation and allow continuous
monitoring; however, certain challenges remain, doi: 10.1016/j.cardiores.2003.12.022
including scaling up production, managing the inherent 3. Bottle A, Faitna P, Aylin PP, Cowie MR. Five-year outcomes
heterogeneity of MSCs, and implementing robust quality following left ventricular assist device implantation in
control measures. Further consensus on MSC definitions England. Open Heart. 2021;8(1):e001658.

Volume 2 Issue 4 (2024) 8 doi: 10.36922/bh.4521