Smooth Muscle Cells for Vascular Engineering

I n the first decade of this century, ever-increasing scientific and technological advances are revolutionizing our approaches to developing therapies that bring about the promise of personalized medicine and the possibility of regenerative interventions. Multidisciplinary research has led to a better understanding of four key areas of scientific and technological knowledge that are essential to the development of such innovative therapies for cardiovascular disease: (1) increased understanding of normal development and cell differentiation processes in vivo; (2) elucidating signaling pathways involved in these processes; (3) uncovering new technological approaches that can efficiently mimic these processes in vitro; and (4) most importantly, the identification and characterization of adequate sources of precursor cells that serve as the starting material for regenerative undertakings.