Jialiang Liang and Yigang Wang
Regenerative medicine offers hope for patients with myocardial infarction (MI). A good deal of clinical evidence shows that the transplantation of stem/progenitor cells from numerous sources can produce significant protective effects in the injured heart, such as enhanced perfusion and contractility. The therapeutic effects of transplanted cells depend on appropriate delivery into the damaged area of the heart. Thus, the method of cell delivery is an important aspect of stem/progenitor cell based therapy, because it affects the fate of transplanted cells and consequently determines the clinical outcome. It is still difficult to determine the optimal cell delivery strategy for MI treatment from the current preclinical and clinical studies, although cell injections have been widely used in the delivery of various types of progenitor cells in clinical trials. Additionally, cell patch engineering has emerged as one of the most promising new approaches. This review summarizes the methods, feasibility, safety, efficacy, and advancements of these two approaches from recent publications. The combined use of various delivery approaches with stem/ progenitor cell transplantation emerges as an important administration method in tissue engineering to promote cardiac regeneration.