The discovery that somatic cells can be reprogrammed to induced pluripotent stem 
cells (iPSC) by overexpression of a combination of transcription factors bears 
the potential to spawn a wealth of new applications in both preclinical and 
clinical cardiovascular research. Disease modeling, which is accomplished by 
deriving iPSC lines from patients affected by heritable diseases and then 
studying the pathophysiology of the diseases in somatic cells differentiated 
from these patient-specific iPSC lines, is the so far most advanced of these 
applications. Long-QT syndrome and catecholaminergic polymorphic ventricular 
tachycardia are two heart rhythm disorders that have been already successfully 
modeled by several groups using this approach, which will likely serve to model 
other mono- or polygenetic cardiovascular disorders in the future. Test systems 
based on cells derived from iPSC might prove beneficial to screen for novel 
cardiovascular drugs or unwanted drug side effects and to individualize medical 
therapy. The application of iPSC for cell therapy of cardiovascular disorders, 
albeit promising, will only become feasible if the problem of biological safety 
of these cells will be mastered.