Cell Transplantation.

Cell transplantation of noncontractile cells into ischemic or dilated cardiomyopathic hearts prevents progressive failure and improves cardiac function by incompletely understood mechanisms. Significant angiogenesis and extracellular matrix remodeling occur after cell transplantation, but these effects do not fully explain the improvement in systolic function of the heart. Recent provocative results suggest that cell transplantation may be able to induce neocardiomyogenesis, and may enhance regional systolic function by recruiting stem cells that differentiate into functioning cardiomyocytes. Enhancing these effects using a combined modality that includes transplantation of genetically modified cells may hold the key to future cardiac regeneration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]