Ex vivo expanded hematopoietic stem cells for ischemia

Ischemia related diseases are on rise worldwide and have been shown to cause irreversible damage to the cells due to the blockage of blood supply to the tissue. Conventional therapies are less effective as they do not consider repair of the damaged tissues. Thus, alternative, stem cell-based therapies are currently under investigation. For example, hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) were shown to give rise to vascular cells involved in neoangiogenesis; so, they have been tested in variety of animal models and small-scale clinical trials. Improvement in blood flow and tissue functionality was observed and adverse effects were not apparent. However, success of stem cell therapy is limited by the number of functional stem cells for clinical application. Numerous attempts are underway to address this issue via strategies that involve ex vivo expansion of stem cells preserving their stemness. This chapter outlines the mechanism of therapeutic angiogenesis, sources of HSCs, various methods of ex vivo expansion of HSCs via genetic regulators, cytokines and biomaterial scaffolds, and their preclinical and clinical applications.