Abstract
The limited ability of mammalian adult cardiomyocytes to proliferate following an injury to the heart, such as myocardial infarction, is a major factor that results in adverse fibrotic and myocardial remodeling that ultimately leads to heart failure. The continued high degree of heart failure-associated morbidity and lethality requires the special attention of researchers worldwide to develop efficient therapeutics for cardiac repair. Recently, various strategies and approaches have been developed and tested to extrinsically induce regeneration and restoration of the myocardium after cardiac injury have yielded encouraging results. Nevertheless, these interventions still lack adequate success to be used for clinical interventions. This review highlights and discusses both cell-based and cell-free therapeutic approaches as well as current advancements, major limitations, and future perspectives towards developing an efficient therapeutic method for cardiac repair.