Cell Therapies for Heart Function Recovery: Focus on Myocardial Tissue Engineering and Nanotechnologies

Figure 1

Cell therapy approaches for myocardial infarction: cells are isolated from biopsies, expanded, and eventually differentiated in vitro following specific culture conditions. Conditioned medium containing secreted or lyophilized factors (A) or isolated cells (B) are injected directly within the myocardium or within the coronaries. Further in vitro process from cultured cells enables the development of structured engineered muscle tissue with or without contracting properties that can be directly sutured or glued at the surface of the infarct (C). Functionalized matrix combining biologically active factors and engrafted cells (D) represents a more sophisticated alternative.