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Abstract
Heart attacks and congestive heart failure remain among the Nation’s most prominent health challenges despite many breakthroughs in cardiovascular medicine. In fact, despite successful approaches to prevent or limit cardiovascular disease, the restoration of function to the damaged heart remains a formidable challenge. Today in the United States, congestive heart failure affects 4.8 million People. One of the major contributors to the development of this condition is a heart attack such as >myocardial infarction, which occurs in nearly 1.1 million people
each year.
The destruction of heart muscle cells (Cardio-myocytes),
can be the result of acute or chronic insufficiency in the blood
supply to the heart muscle caused by coronary artery disease
(ischemic heart disease or heart attack).
Recent research is providing early evidence that adult and
embryonic stem cells may be able to replace damaged heart
muscle cells and establish new blood vessels to supply them.
Regardless of which mechanism will ultimately prove to be the
most significant in stem-cell mediated cardiac repair, cells must
be successfully delivered to the site of injury to maximize the
restored function, this can be done either Direct intra-coronary
artery infusion or Transthoracic myocardial injection or
intravenous injection.
Stem cell can be coaxed into developing as new Cardio-
myocytes and vascular endothelial cells. The potential ability of
both embryonic and adult stem cells to develop into these cells
types in the damaged heart is now being explored as part of a