Contents -- Contributors -- Preface -- 1. The Meritocracy of Stem Cells for Therapy Myrtle Y. Gordon and Nagy A. Habib -- References -- 2. Overview of Adult Stem Cell Therapy in Cardiac Disease Georgios Nteliopoulos, Nataˇsa Leviˇcar and Ioannis Dimarakis -- Introduction -- Regenerative Potential of the Native Myocardial Tissue -- Adult Stem Cells -- Bone marrow-Derived stem cells -- Other adult stem cells -- Other Cell Types -- Homing to Ischaemic Myocardium -- Mechanisms of Cardiac Function Improvement -- Final Comments -- References -- 3. Embryonic Stem Cells and Their Therapeutic Potential Tomo Šarić, Shuhua Chen, Naidu Kamisseti, Marcel Halbach, Michael Xavier Doss, Johannes Winkler, Jürgen Hescheler and Agapios Sachinidis -- Embryonic Stem Cells -- ES Cell-Derived Cardiomyocytes -- Generation of cardiomyocytes from ES cells -- Functional characteristics of ES cell-derived cardiomyocytes -- Animal models of cardiomyocytes derived from ES cells -- Other Animal Models for ES Cell-Based Therapeutics -- Models for neural diseases -- Models for therapy for type I diabetes mellitus -- Animal models for liver and kidney regeneration -- Cell replacement therapy for other organ systems -- Barriers to Successful Use of ES Cell-Based Therapies -- Ethical concerns -- Safety concerns and purity -- Rejection of allogeneic cells -- Conclusions -- References -- 4. Umbilical Cord Blood Cells for Cardiac Repair Elad Maor, Arnon Nagler and Jonathan Leor -- Introduction -- Myocardial Infarction and Heart Failure -- Myocardial Regeneration and Cell-Based Therapy -- Problems with the Available Cell Sources -- The Rationale for Using UCB Progenitor Cells for Myocardial Repair -- Data from Animal Models -- How Do Cord Blood Cells Repair Ischemic Tissue? -- Ex vivo Expansion -- Immunosuppression and Graft versus Host Disease -- Summary -- References.

5. Amniotic Stem Cells Paolo De Coppi, Anthony Atala and Saverio Sartore -- Introduction -- Amniocentesis -- Differentiated Cells from Amniotic Fluid -- Mesenchymal Stem Cells from Amniotic Fluid -- Amniotic Fluid Stem Cells -- Cell preparation and culture methods -- Cell cloning -- Telomerase activity -- Differentiation potential induction of osteogenic phenotype -- Induction of adipogenic lineage -- Induction of myogenic phenotype -- Induction of endothelial phenotype -- Induction of hepatocytes phenotype -- Induction of neurogenic phenotype -- Clonal and proliferative analyses -- Conclusion -- References -- 6. Stem Cell Homing to Injury in Cellular Cardiomyoplasty Adil Al Kindi, Dominique Shum-Tim and Ray Chu-Jeng Chiu -- Introduction -- The Prelude: Insights from Bone Marrow Transplantation -- Animal Studies -- The Signaling Molecules -- Summary and Conclusions -- References -- 7. A Molecular Imaging Perspective on Cardiac Repair with Stem Cells Kishore Bhakoo -- Introduction -- Radionuclide Imaging -- Optical Imaging -- Ultrasound -- MRI Imaging -- Intracellular MRI Contrast Agents -- MRI Tracking of Stem Cells in the Heart -- Multimodality -- Conclusions -- References -- 8. Marrow Stromal Cells as Universal Donor Cells for Cardiac Regenerative Therapy: Fact or Fancy? Jun Luo, Dominique Shum-Tim and Ray Chu-Jeng Chiu -- Introduction -- Maternal-Fetal Cell Microchimerism: A Whisper of the Nature? -- Stem Cell Therapy and Immune Rejection -- Marrow Stromal Cells for Cellular Cardiomyoplasty: An Experimental Study in Porcine/Rat Xenotransplant ModelWithout Immunosuppression -- Mechanisms of MSC Immune Tolerance -- Conclusions -- References -- 9. The Preclinical Basis to Find the Right Choice of Stem Cells for Cardiac Transplantation Matthias Siepe -- Introduction -- Skeletal Myoblasts (SM).

The search for the underlying mechanism (and possible side effects) -- Translational steps before and while initiating clinical studies -- Bone Marrow Stem Sells -- Proof of concept -- The search for the underlying mechanism (and possible side effects) -- Translational steps before and while initiating clinical studies -- Cord Blood Cells -- Cardiac Precursor Cells -- Embryonic Stem Cells -- Closing Remarks -- References -- 10. Bone Marrow-Derived Stem Cells for Treatment of Ischaemic Heart Disease: Background and Experience from Clinical Trials Ketil Lunde and Svend Aakhus -- Introduction -- Evidence that cells derived from bone marrow are involved in myocardial regeneration -- Why cells derived for bone marrow could be useful for cardiac repair -- Cell Populations -- Selection of Patients -- Administration of the Cells -- Clinical Studies -- Safety -- Discussion -- Conclusion -- References -- 11. Skeletal Myoblast Transplantation for Ischemic Heart Failure Philippe Menasché -- Theoretical and Experimental Basis for the Use of Skeletal Myoblasts -- Update on Clinical Studies -- Remaining Issues -- Economic Issues -- Methodologic Issues -- References -- 12. Myocardial Tissue Regeneration Observed in Stem-Cell Seeded Bioengineered Scaffolds Yen Chang, Chun-Hung Chen, Hao-Ji Wei, Wei-Wen Lin, Shiaw-Min Hwang, Huihua Kenny Chiang, Sung-Ching Chen, Po-Hong Lai and Hsing-Wen Sung -- Introduction -- Materials and Methods -- Results -- Characteristics of the acellular patch -- Phenotype of MSCs before implantation -- Characteristics of the acellular/MSC patch -- Epicardial electrograms -- Echocardiography -- Gross examination -- Histological findings -- Discussion -- References -- 13. Stem Cells and Heart Valves Danielle Gottlieb, Fraser W. H. Sutherland and John E. Mayer Jr. -- Introduction -- Modes of Failure in Existing Heart Valves -- Mechanical valves.

Tissue valves -- Embryologic Development of Native Semilunar Valves -- Structure and Function of the Native Semilunar Heart Valves -- Approaches to a Tissue Engineered Heart Valve -- Differentiated and Stem Cells for Tissue Engineered Heart Valves -- Scaffolds: Polymers -- Tissue Formation: Biochemical and Biophysical Pre-Conditioning -- In Vivo Experiments -- Heart Valve Tissue Engineering: Present and Future -- References -- 14. Potential Applications of Combined Stem Cell and Gene Therapy for the Treatment of Infarcted Heart Husnain Khawaja Haider and Muhammad Ashraf -- Introduction -- Stem Cells for Cellular Cardiomyoplasty -- Gene Therapy for Myocardial Repair -- Combining Cellular Cardiomyoplasty with Gene Delivery -- Cell Based Gene Delivery to Alleviate Cellular Apoptosis -- Cell Based Gene Delivery for Myogenesis and Electromechanical Integration -- Cell Based Gene Delivery for Angiogenesis -- Stem cell-derived neovascularization -- Angiogenesis Using Genetically Engineered Cells -- SkMs-mediated angiogenic gene delivery -- Cardiomyocyte-mediated gene delivery -- Bone marrow cell-based gene delivery -- Future Directions -- References -- 15. Optimal Expansion and Differentiation of Cord Blood Stem Cells Using Design of Experiments Mayasari Lim, Hua Ye, Nicki Panoskaltsis and Athanasios Mantalaris -- Introduction -- Hematopoiesis -- Ex vivo expansion and differentiation of hematopoietic cells -- Design of Experiments -- DOE designs -- Case study: in-vitro erythropoiesis -- Cell culture conditions -- DOE experimental design -- Results and Discussion -- DOE Application in Stem Cell Bioprocessing -- Conclusion -- References -- Index.