Bone Marrow Cell Transplantation for Myocardial Regeneration and Therapeutic Angiogenesis.

Coronary artery disease remains the leading cause of death in developing countries. In the United States, up to 12 million Americans have a history of myocardial infarction, angina pectoris, or both (1). Although recent advances in medical treatment and interventional procedures have reduced the mortality in patients with coronary artery disease (2), the number of patients with refractory myocardial ischemia and congestive heart failure is rapidly increasing. In a significant proportion of these patients, percutaneous coronary intervention or surgical bypass revascularization is either not feasible or incomplete as a result of patients' comorbidity, total occlusion, or poor distal vessels. After a myocardial infarction, some cardiomyocytes are lost and others hibernate because of insufficient myocardial perfusion. Therefore, therapeutic approaches aimed at promoting blood vessel formation (angiogenesis) and growing new heart muscle fibers (myocardial regeneration) are attractive alternatives. Accumulating evidence suggests that bone marrow cells have the potential of contributing to tissue revascularization and cardiac regeneration after myocardial injury. This chapter summarizes the current status of bone marrow cell transplantation for myocardial regeneration and therapeutic angiogenesis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]