Cardiac progenitor cells: potency and control

Stem cell-based regeneration of the heart has focused much scientific and public attention being cardiac diseases the major cause of disability and death in industrialized countries. Innumerable efforts have been taken to unveil the mechanisms undergoing stem cell proliferation and fate, but much remains to be endeavoured for their application in clinical practice. Nevertheless, the discovery of progenitor cells resident within the cardiac tissue has sparked off enthusiasm about the possibility of efficiently and safely engineering them to repair the injured myocardium. Indeed, the early applications of the cardiac progenitor cells, mostly based on simplistic concepts and techniques, have failed highlighting the prerequisite of expanding the knowledge about progenitor cell features and microenvironmental conditioning. In this review, recent information on resident cardiac progenitor cells has been systematically gathered in order to create a valuable instrument to support investigators in their efforts to establish an efficient cardiac cell therapy.