Percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) for coronary revascularization in conjunction with an optimized pharmacological treatment can reduce adverse left ventricular remodeling and dysfunction in patients with acute myocardial infarction. Despite these modern therapeutic strategies a significant number of these patients continue to develop adverse cardiac remodeling and LV dysfunction which is associated with a poor prognosis. Stem and progenitor cell-based approaches for treatment of acute myocardial infarction and chronic ischemic cardiomyopathy are an interesting direction of current experimental and clinical research. The current review article provides a summary of recent developments of cell-based therapies of ischemic heart disease, including the assessment of the repair and regeneration capacity of different stem and progenitor cell populations. In addition the advantages and disadvantages of different modes of cell application and potential strategies for the improvement of stem and progenitor cell function for their use in cell-based cardiovascular therapies will be described.