Fig. 1

Challenges in treating cardiac fibrosis and potential solutions with stem cell technology. The red boxes above delineate some of the primary challenges encountered in the development of antifibrotic drugs, as discussed in this review. The subsequent blue box elucidates the applications of stem cell technology, wherein abundant cardiac cells derived from human pluripotent stem cells can be cultured into diverse structures to meet specific demands. Moreover, both the transplantation of products derived from human pluripotent stem cells and the in vivo reprogramming of cardiac fibroblasts into cardiomyocytes demonstrate promising potential for cardiac fibrosis therapy, as depicted by the adjacent brown and green boxes. TGF-β, transforming growth factor-β; Wnt/β-catenin, Wnt family/β-catenin; NF-κB, nuclear factor kappa B subunit; CF, cardiac fibroblasts; CM, cardiomyocytes; hPSC, human pluripotent stem cell; EC, endothelial cells