Jürgen Hescheler · Erhard Hofer
Editors

2014

Potential for Regenerative Medicine
of the Cardiovascular System

There is hardly an area of research developing so quickly and raising so much hopes and promises as stem cell research. Embryonic, fetal, and adult stem cells provide cells with pluri- and multipotency, respectively, and allow deeper insights into mechanisms of self renewal and plasticity. More recently, processes of epigenetic programming and reprogramming to induce pluripotent stem cells (iPS cells) hold the promise for better understanding the differentiation of embryonic stem cells into endo-, ecto- and mesodermal lineages as well as their derivatives.