Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is one of the contributing factors to more than one-third of human mortality and the leading cause of death worldwide. Cardiac myocyte death is a fundamental process in cardiac pathologies caused by various heart diseases, including myocardial infarction. Thus, strategies for replacing fibrotic tissue in the infarcted region with functional myocardium have long been a goal of cardiovascular research. This review focuses primarily on induced-pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), which have emerged as perhaps the most promising source of cardiomyocytes for both therapeutic applications and drug testing. We also briefly summarize other stems- and progenitor-cell populations that have been used for regenerative myocardial therapy and attempt to generate cardiomyocytes directly from cardiac fibroblasts (i.e., transdifferentiation), which, if successful, may enable the pool of endogenous cardiac fibroblasts to be used as an in-situ source of cardiomyocytes for myocardial repair.

To evaluate whether autologous mesenchymal cells, adipose derived stem cells and platelet-rich plasma, grafted into the supracoroideal space by surgical treatment according to Limoli retinal restoration technique (LRRT), can produce growth factors in order to exert a beneficial effect in retinitis pigmentosa (RP) patients. Twenty-one eyes underwent surgery and divided based on retinal foveal thickness ≤ 190 or >190 µm into group A and group B, respectively. The specific LRRT triad was grafted in a deep scleral pocket above the choroid of each eye. At 6-month follow-up, group B showed an improvement in residual close-up visus and sensitivity at microperimetry compared to group A. After an in-depth review of molecular biology studies concerning degenerative phenomena underlying the etiopathogenesis of RP, it can be confirmed that further research is needed on tapeto-retinal degenerations both from a clinical and molecular point of view to obtain better functional results. In particular, it is necessary to increase the number of patients, extend observation times, and treat subjects in the presence of still trophic retinal tissue to allow adequate biochemical and functional catering.