Biomaterials-based Cell Therapy for Myocardial Tissue Regeneration.

Cardiovascular diseases have been the leading cause of death worldwide during the past several decades. Cell loss is the main problem that resulted in cardiac dysfunction and further mortality. Cell therapy aiming to replenish the lost cells is proposed to treat cardiovascular diseases especially ischemic heart diseases which lead to a big portion of cell loss. Due to the direct injection's low cell retention and survival ratio, cell therapy using biomaterials as cell carriers attracts more and more attention because of their promotion of cell delivery and maintenance at the aiming sites. In this review, we systematically summarized the three main factors involved in cell therapy for myocardial tissue regeneration: cell sources (somatic cells, stem cells and engineered cells), chemical components of cell carriers (natural materials, synthetic materials and electroactive materials), and categories of cell delivery materials (patches, microspheres, injectable hydrogels, nanofiber and microneedles, etc.). An introduction of the methods including magnetic resonance/radionuclide/photoacoustic and fluorescence imaging for tracking the behavior of transplanted cells in vivo is also included. Current challenges of biomaterials-based cell therapy and their future directions are provided to give both beginners and professionals a clear view of the development and future trends in this area. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.