Cardiac adipose tissue: a new frontier for cardiac regeneration?

The human heart has limited regenerative capacity. We focused on cardiac adipose tissue as a source of progenitor cells and biological matrix material for salvaging injured myocardium. First, a population of human adult mesenchymal-like progenitors derived from cardiac adipose tissue, with inherent cardiac and endothelial cell potential, was identified and characterized. Next, a salvage strategy was tested, where a pericardial-derived, vascularized, adipose flap was used to cover oxygen-deprived myocardium in a porcine model. The fat flap reduced the myocardial scar size, in both acute and chronic infarcts. A human clinical trial to examine this novel intervention is currently underway.