Over the past 5 years there has been great excitement and controversy in the scientific, financial, and lay literature for the potential of stem cell-based strategies for the prev- tion and treatment of chronic heart failure (CHF). Not that long ago we believed we were born with a set number of cardiac myocytes and that once damaged there was no hope to replace them. The interest in the field stems from the magnitude of cardiovascular disease in the world. Our ability to treat and help patients survive acute myocardial infarction (MI) has resulted in a near epidemic of CHF. There are more than 5 million Americans who currently carry the diagnosis of CHF. With more than 1 million MIs a year in the United States, there are approx 500,000 new cases of CHF diagnosed each year. The goal of Stem Cells and Myocardial Regeneration is to present, in a coherent manner, the current state of knowledge of stem cell-based therapies for cardiac dysfunction, including current findings in both the laboratory and the clinic trials. The first section of this Stem Cells and Myocardial Regeneration focuses on the magnitude of the problem and the successes and failures of what we consider optimal medical therapy. It is on this background that stem cell-based therapy needs to build.

Inhalt
Economic impact of heart failure.- The Challenge for Stem Cell Therapy.- Cells Of Interest For Myocardial Regeneration.- Hematopoietic Stem Cells for Myocardial Regeneration.- Mesenchymal Stem Cells for Cardiac Therapy.- Multipotent Adult Progenitor Cells.- Mesenchymal Progenitor Cells for Vascular Network Formation and Cardiac Muscle Regeneration.- Umbilical Cord Blood Stem Cells for Myocardial Regeneration and Angiogenesis.- Endogenous Cardiac Stem Cells.- Embryonic Stem Cells for Myocardial Repair.- Mechanisms And Critical Pathways Involved In Myocardial Repair.- Chemokine and Homing Factor Expression in Acute Myocardial Infarction and Chronic Heart Failure.- Stem Cell Differentiation Toward a Cardiac Myocyte Phenotype.- Electrical Coupling and/or Ventricular Tachycardia Risk of Cell Therapy.- Cell Therapy for Myocardial Damage.- Strategies For Cell Delivery: Advantages/Disadvantages.- Aspects of Percutaneous Cellular Cardiomyoplasty.- Stem Cells and Myocardial Regeneration.- Stem Cell-Based Clinical Trials For Cardiac Dysfunction.- Measures of Effective Cell-Based Therapy.- Whole Bone Marrow Transplantation.- Clinical Angioblast Therapy.- Use of Skeletal Myoblasts for the Treatment of Chronic Heart Failure.- Bone Marrow and Angioblast Transplantation.- Strategies for Cytokine Modification and Stem Cell Mobilization for Acute Myocardial Infarction.- Summary/Future Challenges.- Summary and Future Challenges.