Is Aging a Treatable Disease in the 21st Century?

D.A. Taylor

With chronic diseases or aging, stem cells or progenitor cells decrease in number and in function and with this decrease in positive cells, disease happens. Major diseases of aging include those where cells are known to fail: cardiovascular disease, diabetes, etc.

Cell therapy is a 21st century approach to treating these intractable problems of aging and is based on the concept that failed endogenous repair can be supplemented by exogenous application of stem or progenitor cells. The first approaches to cardiovascular cell therapy involved the use of single populations of cells or genes, where the goal was to intervene fairly early after ischemic cardiac injury prevent or reverse negative remodeling.

The future of cell-based approaches to cardiovascular repair is three-fold:

  • Prevention of CVD with cell therapy
  • Replacing lost cardiac muscle cells, patent vasculature and electrical connectivity with simple or combined cell populations
  • Regenerating (versus repairing) the whole heart


Prevention of CVD focuses on the prevention and reversal of atherosclerosis. Isolating new populations of stem cells from adult heart is a different aspect of the future. The final frontier is bio-engineering artificial organs to provide new tools for discovery and for therapy.