Published online Oct 26, 2015. doi: 10.4330/wjc.v7.i10.665
Peer-review started: May 27, 2015
First decision: June 18, 2015
Revised: July 7, 2015
Accepted: September 7, 2015
Article in press: September 8, 2015
Published online: October 26, 2015
Processing time: 161 Days and 16.7 Hours
Myocardial infarction is the most common cause of congestive heart failure. Novel strategies such as directly reprogramming cardiac fibroblasts into cardiomyocytes are an exciting area of investigation for repair of injured myocardial tissue. The ultimate goal is to rebuild functional myocardium by transplanting exogenous stem cells or by activating native stem cells to induce endogenous repair. Cell-based myocardial restoration, however, has not penetrated broad clinical practice yet. Platelet-rich plasma, an autologous fractionation of whole blood containing high concentrations of growth factors, has been shown to safely and effectively enhance healing and angiogenesis primarily by reparative cell signaling. In this review, we collected all recent advances in novel therapies as well as experimental evidence demonstrating the role of platelet-rich plasma in ischemic heart disease, focusing on aspects that might be important for future successful clinical application.
Core tip: Tissue regeneration requires precise coordination among endothelial, epithelial and mesenchymal morphogenesis. Growth factor-induced angiogenesis plays a key role in recovery from ischemic disease and organ regeneration. Recent studies show that stem-cells and PRP together have opened new horizons in the myocardial infarction treatment.