Two studies involving cardiac cell transplantation have shown an evolving role for bone marrow cells in cardiac cell therapy. The implantation of heart muscle cells and subsequent restoration of cardiac function was enhanced when bone marrow cells were implanted along with the cardiomyocytes.

Recent studies indicate that infusing hearts with stem cells taken from bone marrow could improve cardiac function after myocardial infarction (tissue damage that results from a heart attack). But in a recent systematic review researchers concluded that more clinical trials are needed to assess the effectiveness of stem cell therapies for heart patients, as well as studies to establish how these treatments work.

Medical investigators have demonstrated that stem cells can be used to regenerate heart tissue to treat dilated cardiomyopathy, a congenital defect.

Researchers have been able to effectively repair damaged heart muscle in an animal model using a novel population of stem cells they discovered that is derived from human skeletal muscle tissue.

Up until today, scientists assumed that the adult heart is unable to regenerate. Now, researchers from Germany have been able to show that this dogma no longer holds true. They demonstrated that the body's heart muscle stem cells generate new tissue and improve the pumping function of the heart considerably in adult mice, when they suppress the activity of a gene regulator known as beta-catenin in the nucleus of the heart cells.

Embryonic stem cells could provide a new way of testing drugs for dangerous side effects. Since researchers are able to make unlimited human heart cells from embryonic stem cells, they may offer a viable and scientifically exciting alternative. Barack Obama is an ardent supporter of stem cell research.

Long-term gene therapy resulted in improved cardiac function and reversed deterioration of the heart in rats with heart failure, according to a recent study.

Taking blood stem cells collected from an umbilical cord into the lab and expanding their number before transplanting them to replace a patient's blood supply is as safe as a standard cord blood transplant, researchers have reported.

A novel way to improve survival and recovery rate after a heart attack was reported in the journal Stem Cell Research. This method, developed in laboratory research with pigs, is the first noncell based therapeutic application of human embryonic stem cells. It entails using secretions from stem cells.

New research shows how the cornea uses stem cells to repair itself. Using mouse models they demonstrate that everyday wear and tear on the cornea is repaired from stem cells residing in the corneal epithelium, and that more serious repair jobs require the involvement of other stem cells that migrate from the limbus, a region between the cornea and the conjunctiva, the white part of the eye.