Myocardial infarction can lead to permanent loss of cardiomyocytes and depressed pumping efficiency of the heart.Due to the extremely limited self-renewal potential of cardiomyocytes,the capability of cardiac repair after ischemic injury is extremely low.Mesenchymal stem cells,one of the widely sourced,easily isolated,extracted and cultured stem cells,are regarded as an ideal source of stem cells for the treatment of myocardial infarction owing to their beneficial paracrine effects.However,the cardioprotective efficacy of mesenchymal stem cells and their derivatives observed in animal models has not been fully translated into visible clinical benefits for patients with myocardial infarction.Recently,mesenchymal stem cell-based cardiac tissue engineering has been widely used in cardiac regenerative medicine and demonstrated excellent cardiac repair potential in infarcted hearts.This article reviews recent research progress on the application of tissue engineering strategies to improve the cardiac repair efficacy of mesenchymal stem cells and their derivatives,aiming to provide evidences for exploring potential strategies that can realize the efficient clinical benefits of mesenchymal stem cell-treatment.