© Springer International Publishing AG 2017 101
T. Pandey (ed.), Imaging in Stem Cell Transplant and Cell-based Therapy,
Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine, DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-51833-6_7
Chapter 7
The Emerging Role of Cardiac Stem Cells
in Cardiac Regeneration
Savneet Kaur, Impreet Kaur, and C.C. Kartha
7.1 Introduction
Heart diseases are one of the leading causes of death and disability worldwide.
These diseases lead to loss of cardiac tissue through death of myocytes by apoptosis
and necrosis. The successive progression of heart disease involves loss of the myo-
cardium, scar formation and remodeling of the remaining cardiac tissue. The aver-
age left ventricle contains approximately four billion cardiomyocytes and the
myocyte loss in infarction-induced heart failure is about one billion. After infarc-
tion, the remaining myocytes are unable to restore the host tissue, and the injured
heart worsens functionally with time. Current therapeutic approaches available
including medical therapy, mechanical left ventricular assist devices, and cardiac
transplantation are primarily focused at limiting disease progression rather than
repair and restoration of healthy tissue and function. The limited efficacy and co-
morbidity of these current treatments have thus stimulated the interest to investigate
other alternative and additional long-term curative measures. In this context, cardiac
stem cell-based therapies have gained significant impetus and seem to hold a great
promise for eliminating the underlying cause of the disease by reconstituting lost
myocardium with a new network of functional cardiomyocytes.
S. Kaur, Ph.D. (*) • I. Kaur, M.Sc.
School of Biotechnology, Gautam Buddha University, Greater Noida, Uttar Pradesh, India
e-mail: [email protected]
C.C. Kartha, M.D., F.R.C.P.
Division of Cardiovascular Diseases and Diabetes Biology, Rajiv Gandhi Center for
Biotechnology, Kerala, India