Perspective from the heart: the potential of human pluripotent stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes

Human pluripotent stem cells (hPSC) are self-renewing cells with the potential to differentiate into a variety of human cells. They hold great promise for regenerative medicine and serve as useful in vitro models for studying human biology. For the past few years, there is vast interest in applying these cells to advance cardiovascular medicine. Human cardiomyocytes can be readily generated from hPSC and they have been characterized extensively with regards to molecular and functional properties. They have been transplanted into animal models of cardiovascular diseases and also shown to be potentially useful reagents for drug discovery. Yet, despite great progress in this field, significant technical hurdles remain before these cells could be used clinically or for pharmaceutical research and development. Further research using novel approaches will be required to overcome these bottlenecks.