Heart-derived endogenous stem cells

Regenerative cardiology has emerged as a novel strategy to improve cardiac healing following ischemic injury. While stem-cell-mediated cardiac regeneration has garnered much attention as a promising strategy, its value remains debated owing to the lack of ideal stem cell source candidates. Resident/endogenous cardiac-derived stromal cells (CSCs) exhibit superior therapeutic potential due to their innate abilities to differentiate into cardiac cells, especially cardiomyocytes (CM). Emerging research has highlighted diverse endogenous CSCs phenotypes and sub-types as candidates for cardiac repair. Interestingly, CSCs promote healing through angiogenesis and regenerative paracrine signaling along with replenishing CM, and CM-like cells in the ischemic heart. Unfortunately, the clonogenic properties and translational potential of CSCs are minimally explored. This review examines the healing promise of a myriad CSCs such as c-kit + cardiac cells, Sca-1 + cells, cardiosphere-derived cells, side population cells, Bm1 + cells, cardiac atrial appendage cells, cardiac adipose cells, epicardial cells, and Isl1 + cells. Also, the review highlights the areas of improvement regarding the therapeutic applications of CSC to extrapolate into the clinical arena of cardiac management.