The limited regeneration capacity of the adult mammalian heart increases the risk of heart failure that develops after cardiac damage. The expectation from the progenitor/stem cell-based therapy is that differentiation of the transplanted cells into specialized cardiac cells and/or trigger the cellular and molecular mechanisms governing repair via paracrine effect. But insufficient cell engraftment, late cardiac functional recovery are major concerns in this treatment method.
Stem/progenitor cells also contribute to cardiac repair releasing extracellular vesicles which can lead to angiogenesis and tissue repair. In recent years there has been a huge interest on the using of stem/progenitor cell-derived extracellular vesicles due to their potential therapeutic applications.
We aim to increase transplantation effieciency of both cardiac progenitor cells (CPCs) and cardiac progenitor cell-derived extracellular vesicles via different approaches.