Stem cells and regeneration of the cardiovascular system: facts, fictions, and uncertainties

The data reviewed here support the view that bone marrow (BM) stem cells can migrate to infarcted myocardium and differentiate into mature, functional cardiomyocytes. Cytokines can mobilize BM stem cells from marrow leading to homing of progenitor cells to infarcted myocardium. Interestingly, contractile performance in these studies appears greater than the capacity of the regenerated cell mass and its biomechanial organization predict, suggesting that the function of the regenerated cell per se may not alone account for global functional recovery.