Figure 2. Schematic diagram of current and putative future approaches to repair infarcted myocardium.

The left panel depicts potential sources of various adult progenitor and stem cell preparations that have been used in clinical trials. Future approaches (right panel) may focus on cardiac cell preparations from ESCs, induced pluripotent cells or direct transdifferentiation of adult stem cells from heterologous tissues to cardiac cells using cardiogenic regulatory factors. Bioengineering of cardiac tissue and/or pharmacological support of grafted cells might be necessary to ensure long-term regeneration of cardiac tissue.