Neovascularization derived from cell transplantation in ischemic myocardium

Myocardial ischemia triggers a limited angiogenic response, part of the remodeling process that is insufficient to avoid further functional impairment. Several strategies have been evaluated to regenerate myocardial vascularization after ischemic injury such as transmyocardial laser revascularization and gene therapy. Attention has recently been focused on the potential of cell therapy to induce angiogenesis. Enhancing myocardial neovascularization is a major goal of myocardial cell transplantation because it would provide patients, who cannot undergo conventional revascularization, with an alternative therapy. Additionally, neovascularization would provide the implanted cells with adequate microenvironment to enhance survival and function. This short review gives an overview of the effect of various cell transplantation strategies on myocardial neovascularization. It suggests that in order to optimize myocardial neovascularization induced by cell therapy, future experiments should focus on the contribution of exogenous and endogenous stem cells to new vessels formation, and on the identification of the molecular pathways involved in the process.