BACKGROUND: Induced pluripotent stem cells are a type of reprogrammed cells with similar characteristics to embryonic stem cells, which are capable of differentiating into phenotypes associated with patient specific diseases. Moreover, their clinical application avoids ethical issues. OBJECTIVE: To review the research progress of induced pluripotent stem cells in myocardial regeneration and repair, cardiovascular disease models, drug development and screening, and drug toxicity testing. METHODS: PubMed (2006-2018) and CNKI (2013-2018) databases were retrieved for relevant articles using the keywords of "induction of pluripotent stem cells; myocardial infarction; arrhythmia; cardiovascular disease; heart failure; heart transplantation; disease model; drug toxicity" in English and Chinese, respectively. The data were reviewed one by one, and the citations involved in the literatures were also reviewed. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: Induced pluripotent stem cells have great potential value in myocardial regeneration and repair, establishment of cardiovascular disease models, new drug development and screening, and drug toxicity detection. The application prospect of the cells is broad, but most of the research is still in the experimental stage. In addition, safety problems, such as low induction efficiency and tumorigenicity, will limit the clinical application of induced pluripotent stem cells.