| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Reviews |
From the Cardiovascular Research Laboratory, the Bruce Rappaport Faculty of Medicine, Technion, Israel Institute of Technology, Rappaport Family Institute for Research in the Medical Sciences and Rambam Medical Center, Haifa, Israel.
Correspondence to Lior Gepstein, MD, PhD, Cardiovascular Research Laboratory, the Bruce Rappaport Faculty of Medicine, Technion, 2 Efron St, PO Box 9649, 31096 Haifa, Israel. E-mail mdlior{at}tx.technion.ac.il
Embryonic stem cells are pluripotent cell lines that are derived from the blastocyst-stage early mammalian embryo. These unique cells are characterized by their capacity for prolonged undifferentiated proliferation in culture while maintaining the potential to differentiate into derivatives of all three germ layers. During in vitro differentiation, embryonic stem cells can develop into specialized somatic cells, including cardiomyocytes, and have been shown to recapitulate many processes of early embryonic development. The present review describes the derivation and unique properties of the recently described human embryonic stem cells as well as the properties of cardiomyocytes derived using this unique differentiating system. The possible applications of this system in several cardiac research areas, including developmental biology, functional genomics, pharmacological testing, cell therapy, and tissue engineering, are discussed. Because of their combined ability to proliferate indefinitely and to differentiate to mature tissue types, human embryonic stem cells can potentially provide an unlimited supply of cardiomyocytes for cell therapy procedures aiming to regenerate functional myocardium. However, many obstacles must still be overcome on the way to successful clinical utilization of these cells.
Key Words: stem cells cardiomyocyte differentiation cell therapy tissue engineering myocardial regeneration
This article has been cited by other articles:
![]() |
J. Satin, I. Itzhaki, S. Rapoport, E. A. Schroder, L. Izu, G. Arbel, R. Beyar, C. W. Balke, J. Schiller, and L. Gepstein Calcium Handling in Human Embryonic Stem Cell-Derived Cardiomyocytes Stem Cells, August 1, 2008; 26(8): 1961 - 1972. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] |
||||
![]() |
D. Thomas, S. Friedman, and R.-Y. Lin Thyroid stem cells: lessons from normal development and thyroid cancer Endocr. Relat. Cancer, March 1, 2008; 15(1): 51 - 58. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] |
||||
![]() |
O. Caspi, I. Huber, I. Kehat, M. Habib, G. Arbel, A. Gepstein, L. Yankelson, D. Aronson, R. Beyar, and L. Gepstein Transplantation of Human Embryonic Stem Cell-Derived Cardiomyocytes Improves Myocardial Performance in Infarcted Rat Hearts J. Am. Coll. Cardiol., November 6, 2007; 50(19): 1884 - 1893. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] |
||||
![]() |
J. Leor, S. Gerecht, S. Cohen, L. Miller, R. Holbova, A. Ziskind, M. Shachar, M. S Feinberg, E. Guetta, and J. Itskovitz-Eldor Human embryonic stem cell transplantation to repair the infarcted myocardium Heart, October 1, 2007; 93(10): 1278 - 1284. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] |
||||
![]() |
I. Kehat and L. Gepstein Electrophysiological Coupling of Transplanted Cardiomyocytes Circ. Res., August 31, 2007; 101(5): 433 - 435. [Full Text] [PDF] |
||||
![]() |
I. Huber, I. Itzhaki, O. Caspi, G. Arbel, M. Tzukerman, A. Gepstein, M. Habib, L. Yankelson, I. Kehat, and L. Gepstein Identification and selection of cardiomyocytes during human embryonic stem cell differentiation FASEB J, August 1, 2007; 21(10): 2551 - 2563. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] |
||||
![]() |
O. Caspi and L. Gepstein Stem cells for myocardial repair Eur. Heart J. Suppl., September 1, 2006; 8(suppl_E): E43 - E54. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] |
||||
![]() |
W.-H. Zimmermann, M. Didie, S. Doker, I. Melnychenko, H. Naito, C. Rogge, M. Tiburcy, and T. Eschenhagen Heart muscle engineering: An update on cardiac muscle replacement therapy Cardiovasc Res, August 1, 2006; 71(3): 419 - 429. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] |
||||
![]() |
D. Hakuno, T. Takahashi, J. Lammerding, and R. T. Lee Focal Adhesion Kinase Signaling Regulates Cardiogenesis of Embryonic Stem Cells J. Biol. Chem., November 25, 2005; 280(47): 39534 - 39544. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] |
||||
![]() |
G. D. Zheng, K. Hidaka, and T. Morisaki Stable and Uniform Gene Suppression by Site-Specific Integration of siRNA Expression Cassette in Murine Embryonic Stem Cells Stem Cells, September 1, 2005; 23(8): 1028 - 1034. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] |
||||
![]() |
S. Davani, F. Deschaseaux, D. Chalmers, P. Tiberghien, and J.-P. Kantelip Can stem cells mend a broken heart? Cardiovasc Res, February 1, 2005; 65(2): 305 - 316. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] |
||||
![]() |
M. R. Rosen, P. R. Brink, I. S. Cohen, and R. B. Robinson Genes, stem cells and biological pacemakers Cardiovasc Res, October 1, 2004; 64(1): 12 - 23. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] |
||||
![]() |
M. Choudhary, E. Haimes, M. Herbert, M. Stojkovic, and A.P. Murdoch Demographic, medical and treatment characteristics associated with couples' decisions to donate fresh spare embryos for research Hum. Reprod., September 1, 2004; 19(9): 2091 - 2096. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] |
||||
![]() |
J. Satin, I. Kehat, O. Caspi, I. Huber, G. Arbel, I. Itzhaki, J. Magyar, E. A. Schroder, I. Perlman, and L. Gepstein Mechanism of spontaneous excitability in human embryonic stem cell derived cardiomyocytes J. Physiol., September 1, 2004; 559(2): 479 - 496. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] |
||||
![]() |
D. M. Hodgson, A. Behfar, L. V. Zingman, G. C. Kane, C. Perez-Terzic, A. E. Alekseev, M. Puceat, and A. Terzic Stable benefit of embryonic stem cell therapy in myocardial infarction Am J Physiol Heart Circ Physiol, August 1, 2004; 287(2): H471 - H479. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] |
||||
![]() |
I. Potapova, A. Plotnikov, Z. Lu, P. Danilo Jr, V. Valiunas, J. Qu, S. Doronin, J. Zuckerman, I. N. Shlapakova, J. Gao, et al. Human Mesenchymal Stem Cells as a Gene Delivery System to Create Cardiac Pacemakers Circ. Res., April 16, 2004; 94(7): 952 - 959. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] |
||||
![]() |
L. Gepstein, Y. Feld, and L. Yankelson Somatic gene and cell therapy strategies for the treatment of cardiac arrhythmias Am J Physiol Heart Circ Physiol, March 1, 2004; 286(3): H815 - H822. [Full Text] [PDF] |
||||
![]() |
V. Planat-Benard, C. Menard, M. Andre, M. Puceat, A. Perez, J.-M. Garcia-Verdugo, L. Penicaud, and L. Casteilla Spontaneous Cardiomyocyte Differentiation From Adipose Tissue Stroma Cells Circ. Res., February 6, 2004; 94(2): 223 - 229. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] |
||||
![]() |
S. Parisi, D. D'Andrea, C. T. Lago, E. D. Adamson, M. G. Persico, and G. Minchiotti Nodal-dependent Cripto signaling promotes cardiomyogenesis and redirects the neural fate of embryonic stem cells J. Cell Biol., October 27, 2003; 163(2): 303 - 314. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] |
||||
![]() |
M. R. Rosen, O. Binah, and S. Marom Cardiac Memory and Cortical Memory: Do Learning Patterns in Neural Networks Impact on Cardiac Arrhythmias? Circulation, October 14, 2003; 108(15): 1784 - 1789. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] |
||||
![]() |
R. D. Vanderlaan, G. Y. Oudit, and P. H. Backx Electrophysiological Profiling of Cardiomyocytes in Embryonic Bodies Derived From Human Embryonic Stem Cells: Therapeutic Implications Circ. Res., July 11, 2003; 93(1): 1 - 3. [Full Text] [PDF] |
||||
![]() |
T. Nakamura and M. D. Schneider The Way to a Human's Heart Is Through the Stomach: Visceral Endoderm-Like Cells Drive Human Embryonic Stem Cells to a Cardiac Fate Circulation, June 3, 2003; 107(21): 2638 - 2639. [Full Text] [PDF] |
||||
![]() |
A. C. Fijnvandraat, R. H. Lekanne Deprez, and A. F.M. Moorman Development of heart muscle-cell diversity: a help or a hindrance for phenotyping embryonic stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes Cardiovasc Res, May 1, 2003; 58(2): 303 - 312. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] |
||||
![]() |
T. Takahashi, B. Lord, P. C. Schulze, R. M. Fryer, S. S. Sarang, S. R. Gullans, and R. T. Lee Ascorbic Acid Enhances Differentiation of Embryonic Stem Cells Into Cardiac Myocytes Circulation, April 15, 2003; 107(14): 1912 - 1916. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] |
||||
|
Circulation Research Home | Subscriptions | Archives | Feedback | Authors | Help | AHA Journals Home | Search Copyright © 2002 American Heart Association, Inc. All rights reserved. Unauthorized use prohibited. |