Stem cell therapies for cardiovascular diseases: What does the future hold?

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality around the globe. In Australia, one in six people are affected by CVD and a total of 4.2 million people are suffering from heart disease, stroke or vascular disease. Coronary artery disease affects around 1.2 million Australians, many of whom develop chronic heart failure as a result of ischaemic cardiomyopathy. The management of CVD has evolved tremendously in the past three decades, but the majority of treatments are not curative. Pharmacotherapy, percutaneous coronary intervention and coronary bypass grafting are important therapeutic measures, but they are unable to repair the damaged myocytes or vascular structures. Stem-cell based therapies are designed to regenerate myocardium, and attenuate or reverse the remodelling of vascular structures; therefore they may fundamentally address the structural damage or cellular degeneration in CVD. For these reasons, there have been a significant number of preclinical and clinical studies conducted in this area in recent years.