Review of basic studies about the cardiac stem cell and regenerative medicine

The availability of enough cardiomyocytes to transplant as a cardiac tissue is able to read the achievement of regenerative cardiac medicine. Tissue derived stem cells, embryonic stem (ES) cells and induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells are all potential cell sources. Several types of cardiac tissue stem cells have already been reported, and we describe about the characteristics and multipotency of these tissue stem cells with an accurate comparison. ES cells and iPS cells are highly proliferative and suitable for mass production, and efficient protocols for selective cardiomyocyte induction using ES cells and iPS cells are also significant. On the other hand, these cells still have several issues about purification and safety as well as ethical problems.