Molecular physiology of cardiac regeneration

Abstract

Heart disease is the leading cause of death in the industrialized world. This is partially attributed to the inability of cardiomyocytes to divide in a significant manner, and therefore the heart responds to injury through scar formation. One of the challenges of modern medicine is to develop novel therapeutic strategies to facilitate regeneration of cardiac muscle in the diseased heart. Numerous methods have been studied and a wide variety of cell types have been considered. To date, bone marrow stem cells, endogenous populations of cardiac stem cells, embryonic stem cells, and induced pluripotent stem cells have been investigated for their ability to regenerate infarcted myocardium, although stem cell transplantation has produced ambiguous results in human clinical trials. Several studies support another approach that seems very appealing: enhancing the limited endogenous regenerative capacity of the heart. The recent advances in stem cell and regenerative biology are giving rise to the view that cardiac regeneration, although not quite ready for clinical treatment, may translate into therapeutic reality in the not too distant future.