Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death worldwide, which
has encouraged the search for new therapies that enable the treatment of
patients in palliative and curative ways. In the past decade, the potential
benefit of transplantation of cells that are able to substitute for the injured
tissue has been studied with several cell populations, such as stem cells.
Some of these cell populations, such as myoblasts and bone marrow cells,
are already being used in clinical trials. The laboratory of CM Verfaillie has
studied primitive progenitors, termed multipotent adult progenitor cells,
which can be isolated from adult bone marrow. These cells can differentiate
in vitro at the single-cell level into functional cells that belong to the three
germ layers and contribute to most, if not all, somatic cell types after
blastocyst injection. This remarkably broad differentiation potential makes
this particular cell population a candidate for transplantation in tissues
in need of regeneration. Here, we focus on the regenerative capacity of
multipotent adult progenitor cells in several ischemic mouse models, such
as acute and chronic myocardial infarction and limb ischemia
