The winding road of cardiac regeneration—Stem cell omics in the spotlight

Abstract

Despite significant progress in treating ischemic cardiac disease and succeeding heart failure, there is still an unmet need to develop effective therapeutic strategies given the persistent high-mortality rate. Advances in stem cell biology hold great promise for regenerative medicine, particularly for cardiac regeneration. Various cell types have been used both in preclinical and clinical studies to repair the injured heart, either directly or indirectly. Transplanted cells may act in an autocrine and/or paracrine manner to improve the myocyte survival and migration of remote and/or resident stem cells to the site of injury. Still, the molecular mechanisms regulating cardiac protection and repair are poorly understood. Stem cell fate is directed by multifaceted interactions between genetic, epigenetic, transcriptional, and post-transcriptional mechanisms. Decoding stem cells’ “panomic” data would provide a comprehensive picture of the underlying mechanisms, resulting in patient-tailored therapy. This review offers a critical analysis of omics data in relation to stem cell survival and differentiation. Additionally, the emerging role of stem cell-derived exosomes as “cell-free” therapy is debated. Last but not least, we discuss the challenges to retrieve and analyze the huge amount of publicly available omics data.