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| Stem cell type | Limitations | Advantages |
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| Embryonic stem cells | Ethical dilemmas, possible immune rejection after implantation, a small number of differentiated cardiomyocytes being generated, leading to teratocarcinomas; genetic instability | Differentiating into cells of all three germ layers |
| Pluripotent stem cells | Genetic instability, more research needed before using for cardiovascular repair/regeneration | Avoiding ethical concerns |
| Adult stem cells | Natural regeneration capacity of CSCs being too limited, acquisition and isolation difficulties, more research needed | Avoiding ethical concerns, lower risk of immune rejection |
| Mesenchymal stem cells | More research needed | Allowing for allogeneic grafting without the use of immunosuppressive agents, self-renewal, proliferating, and differentiating, promoting growth of adjacent cells, less susceptible to mutations, easy to collect |
| Hematopoietic stem cells | High maintenance, low frequencies, unknown signaling pathways | Proliferating and migrating to injury site in response to physiological/pathological stimuli, capable of myogenesis and angiogenesis |
| Endothelial progenitor cells | Extremely low numbers in peripheral blood and bone marrow making ex vivo expansion difficult | Increasing its numbers in response to ischemia/cytokine stimuli and migrating to injury site and differentiating into new myocytes |
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