Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Chapter 2b
Cardiomyocyte Differentiation from
Stem Cells
Shinako Masuda
Institute of Advanced Biomedical Engineering and Science,
Tokyo Women's Medical University, 8-1 Kawada-cho, Shinjuku-ku,
Tokyo 162-8666, Japan
smasuda@abmes.twmu.ac.jp
2b.1
Introduction
Creating new cardiomyocytes is an important step in myocardium
tissue engineering. Cardiomyocytes lose their proliferative ability
soon after birth, stem cells are thought to be promising cell sources
for new cardiomyocytes. Up to now, cardiac differentiation potency
in various types of stem cells has been elucidated in vitro and in vivo.
Tissue stem cells from bone marrow, adipose tissue, and skeletal
muscle might be useful for autologous transplantation. However, as
there are few reports that these cells have been incorporated into the
damaged myocardium and have differentiated into cardiomyocytes
when in transplantation, the phenomenon is still an open question.
Recently, the existence of cardiac stem/progenitor cells in the adult
