Cardiovascular diseases still represent the leading cause of death in most countries. Despite progress in interventional and surgical therapies, a substantial percentage of patients suffering from ischemic heart or limb disease are not suitable for revascularization. Life expectancy and quality of these patients are severely decreased and comparable to advanced tumor diseases; therefore, novel therapeutic strategies are urgently needed.

Since over 20 years, researchers are exploring mechanisms of angiogenesis (the growth of new blood vessels) and the function of stem cells in cardiovascular diseases to ultimately treat patients suffering from ischemic limb and heart disease. Several potent angiogenic cytokines like vascular endothelial growth factor or fibroblast growth factor were evaluated in these diseases, but the results of large phase-III gene therapy studies using fibroblast growth factor recently were disappointing. Additionally, a variety of stem cell studies using bone-marrow mononuclear cells, CD-34+ cells, cardiac stem cells, or mesenchymal stem cells were conducted and showed promising results. Large randomized studies in this field are on the way.

We invite investigators to contribute original research articles as well as review articles to further stimulate basic as well as translational research and clinical application of cytokines and stem cells in the field of cardiovascular regenerative medicine. Potential topics include, but are not limited to:

• Novel angiogenic cytokines and modes of application in animal models
• Combination of cytokines for induction of angiogenesis and arteriogenesis
• Vasculogenesis and vascular progenitor cells
• Vascular gene therapy: large animal and clinical trials with angiogenic cytokines/factors
• Large animal and clinical trials targeting calcium-associated proteins (SERCA, S100A, etc.) to resolve heart failure
• Large animal and clinical trials with cardiovascular stem cells
• Novel stem cells for cardiovascular regeneration
• Mechanism of action of cardiovascular stem cells
• Molecular mechanisms controlling the biology and cardiovascular regenerative potential of stem cells
• Novel mechanisms enabling the in vitro/ex vivo empowering of stem cells

Before submission authors should carefully read over the journal’s Author Guidelines, which are located at http://www.hindawi.com/journals/ijvm/guidelines/. Prospective authors should submit an electronic copy of their complete manuscript through the journal Manuscript Tracking System at http://mts.hindawi.com/submit/journals/ijvm/csr/ according to the following timetable: