Heart disease is the leading cause of death for both men and women in the United States. According to the CDC, in the United States alone there are 7.1 million survivors of myocardial infarction (MI) and 4.9 million people living with congestive heart failure (CHF). The incidence of heart failure leading to hospitalization, and its mortality rates continue to rise. Heart failure therefore remains the main unsolved problem in cardiology. Because homograft transplants are costly, dependent on a scarce donor-organ pool, and vulnerable to complications, they will never be adequate for widespread treatment of end-stage heart failure. Cell and molecular therapies to repair and regenerate the myocardium after myocardial infarction will eliminate the frustrations of contemporary heart failure treatment by creating new contractile units in the damaged heart or even by creating a “cloned heart” from stem cells.  Stem cell therapy and regenerative medicine  is emerging as a multidisciplinary field involving molecular and cell biologists, embryologists, pathologists, clinicians, bioengineers, and ethicists. Clinical study evidence suggests that stem cells derived from adult tissues (especially bone marrow) may develop into myocardial cells. This phenomenon occurs naturally in human beings, specifically during recovery from a myocardial infarction. Cardiac experiments, mainly with adult homologous stem cells, have proved that this therapy is safe and may improve myocardial vascularization and pump function.

Lung diseases remain a significant and devastating cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide. In contrast to many other major diseases, lung diseases notably chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases (COPD), including both asthma and emphysema, are increasing in prevalence and COPD is expected to become the 3rd leading cause of disease mortality worldwide by 2020. For patients in the late stages of lung disease, transplantation is sometimes the only viable therapeutic option. However, organ availability is limited and rejection presents an additional challenge. New therapeutic options are desperately needed. A rapidly growing number of investigations of stem cells and cell therapies in lung biology and diseases as well as in ex vivo lung bioengineering have offered exciting new avenues for advancing knowledge of lung biology as well as providing novel potential therapeutic approaches for lung diseases. These initial observations have led to a growing exploration of endothelial progenitor cells and mesenchymal stem (stromal) cells in clinical trials of pulmonary hypertension and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) with other clinical investigations planned.  Lung is thus a ripe organ for a variety of cell therapy and regenerative medicine approaches. Current state-of-the-art progress for each of the above areas will be presented as will discussion of current considerations for cell therapy based clinical trials in lung diseases.