Stem Cells and Cardiovascular Diseases—More than Just about Cells

Dear Colleagues,

The term “cardiovascular diseases” includes disorders of blood vessels which supply either single organs such as the brain (cerebrovascular) or the heart (coronary heart), or whole limbs (peripheral artery disease). Disorders of each of these vascular beds can have deleterious effects such as ischemic stroke, myocardial infarction, heart failure, or critical limb ischemia. Since the success of stem-cell transplantation for the treatment of hematologic malignancies in the late 1990s, a plethora of pre-clinical and clinical studies were undertaken to attenuate tissue injury and stimulate tissue regeneration by use of cell-based therapy in cardiovascular diseases as well. From the early attempts of injecting cardiomyocytes into the scar area of infarcted hearts, this research field has advanced towards the use of bone marrow-derived mononuclear cells, mesenchymal stem cells, or embryonic- or induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cell-derived differentiated cells, the use of bioengineered matrices of various cellular composition, and even the cell-free approach by use of exosome transfer. During the development of this research field, the role of the paracrine function of the injected cells and their molecular interaction with cells and the immune system of the host has received increasing attention, as has the importance of microvascular repair and angiogenesis. Recent advances in genome editing might offer the possibility to tailor cells and their secretome individually toward personalized medicine.

We are pleased to invite you to share your results of current investigations on somatic stem cells (bone marrow of mesenchymal (stem) cells, cardiac stem or progenitor cells) or iPS-derived cells in cardiovascular research, with a focus on the paracrine function of these cells, their molecular interplay with a potential host, and of re-programming or adjusting their secretome using gene editing or environmental changes. In this line, reports on investigations of acellular models are welcome as well.

This Special Issue aims to increase the knowledge of cell-based therapies for vascular diseases including myocardial diseases, cerebral diseases or peripheral artery diseases. The emphasis lies on studying the molecular mechanisms of the cell therapies to provide the mechanistic base for future clinical applications.

Potential topics include, but are not limited to:

• Different models of cardiomyocyte, vascular or neuronal ischemia treated with stem cells or iPS-derived cells in vitro
• Analysis of stem cell secretome under different culturing conditions
• Analysis of cell–cell interaction of stem cells with tissue resident or immune cells
• Modeling stem cell function to the need in different disease models
• Acellular treatment models of cardiomyocyte, vascular or neuronal ischemia, i.e., secretome transfer
• Improvement of endothelial cell function by modified paracrine functions of stem cells

Dr. Katherine Sattler
Guest Editor

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