Nevertheless, we are still at the dawn of this therapeutic revolution. Since the initial report of cell therapy (skeletal myoblasts) in HF in 1998, research has proceeded at lightning speed and numerous preclinical and clinical studies have been performed that support the ability of various stem cell populations to improve cardiac function and reduce infarct size in both ischemic and nonischemic cardiomyopathy. For the first time since cardiac transplantation, a therapy is being developed to eliminate the underlying cause of HF, not just to achieve damage control. Stem cell-based therapies have the potential to fundamentally transform the treatment of HF by achieving what would have been unthinkable only a few years ago – myocardial regeneration. Despite significant therapeutic advances, the prognosis of patients with heart failure (HF) remains poor and current therapeutic approaches are palliative in the sense that they do not address the underlying problem – the loss of cardiac tissue.
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