INTRODUCTION: Cardiovascular disease is a major cause of death worldwide. 
Different medical and surgical therapeutic options are well established, but a 
significant number of patients are not amenable to standard therapeutic options. 
Cell-based therapies after clinical application have shown different results in 
recent years. Here, we are giving a comprehensive overview on major available 
clinical data regarding cell therapy.
BACKGROUND: Cell-based therapies and tissue engineering provide new promising 
platforms to develop upcoming therapeutic options. Initial clinical trials were 
able to generate promising results. A variety of different stem cell types have 
been used for the clinical application. Different adult cardiac stem cells and 
progenitor cells, including mesenchymal, CD34(+) and CD133(+) autologous human 
bone marrow-derived stem cells (BMCs), human myoblasts, and peripheral 
blood-derived stem and progenitor cells (PBSCs) have been used for the therapy 
for end-stage heart failure. Future experiments will show the importance of 
novel cell populations and clarify the mechanism causing cell therapy-mediated 
observed effects.
CONCLUSION: Several clinical trials have reported on sole therapy, as well as 
combined application of autologous adult stem cells with conventional 
revascularization. The reported promising findings encourage further research in 
the field of the translational research.