Table 2

Summary of current and future applications of iPSC technology in relation to cardiovascular medicine and ongoing challenges ahead

Cardiovascular application	Advantage of using iPSC-technology	Ongoing challenges
Disease modelling
Inherited arrhythmogenic diseases Inherited cardiomyopathies	iPSC-CMs carry same genetic mutation allowing rarer genetic diseases to be modelled	Relatively immature phenotype Difficulties in modelling more complex multifactorial diseases
Drug testing and discovery
Testing of existing drugs on human cardiomyocytes Testing of new drugs	Unlimited source of human cardiomyocytes	Relatively immature phenotype Need to improve efficiency of iPSC-CM production and upscaling of cells
Personalised medicine
In vitro drug testing Correction of genetic mutation	Patient-specific iPSC-CMs: in vitro data may be directly relevant to individual Possibility of correcting genetic mutation specific to that individual	Need to demonstrate good correlation between in vitro data and significance to individual Current methods of reprogramming too slow and inefficient
Regenerative medicine
Cell transplantation in heart failure/post myocardial infarction Biological pacemakers Artificial heart valves Vascular endothelial cells for peripheral vascular disease	No need for immunosuppression iPSC-CMs can be produced from patients' own somatic cells	Potential teratoma formation of undifferentiated iPSCs Potential proarrhythmias Functional and electrical integration of cells Need for purification and upscaling of iPSC-CMs Optimal delivery methods