Coronary artery disease, also known as ischemic heart disease , is the leading killer of men and women worldwide. In 2004, coronary artery disease was responsible for 7.2 million deaths, or 12.2% of all deaths globally and 5.8% of all years of life lost (World Health Organization 2008). The disease is highly prevalent: at any given time, 54 million people in the world suffer from angina pectoris (the characteristic chest pain of ischemic heart disease), and 23.2 million people experience moderate to severe disability as a result of ischemic heart disease 2008). Thirty-day mortality after an acute heart attack is extremely high at 33%; even in a hospital with a coronary care unit where advanced care options are available, mortality is still 7%. Approximately 4% of patients who survive initial hospitalization die in the first year following a heart attack (Antman et al. 2004). Congestive heart failure , the end stage of many heart diseases, carries a 1-year mortality rate as high as 40% and a 5-year mortality between 26 and 75%; the prognosis for patients with congestive heart failure is worse than for those with most malignancies or AIDS (McMurray and Stewart 2000). Pharmacologic therapy, metallic stents, and coronary artery bypass grafts have been mainstays of treatment for ischemic heart disease. However, new biomaterial devices are on the horizon that will enable optimal treatment of coronary artery lesions, as well as regeneration of damaged cardiac tissue.