New approaches under development: cardiovascular embryology applied to heart disease
Karl Degenhardt, Manvendra K. Singh, Jonathan A. Epstein
Karl Degenhardt, Manvendra K. Singh, Jonathan A. Epstein
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New approaches under development: cardiovascular embryology applied to heart disease

Abstract

Despite many innovative advances in cardiology over the past 50 years, heart disease remains a major killer. The steady progress that continues to be made in diagnostics and therapeutics is offset by the cardiovascular consequences of the growing epidemics of obesity and diabetes. Truly innovative approaches on the horizon have been greatly influenced by new insights in cardiovascular development. In particular, research in stem cell biology, the cardiomyocyte lineage, and the interactions of the myocardium and epicardium have opened the door to new approaches for healing the injured heart.

Authors

Karl Degenhardt, Manvendra K. Singh, Jonathan A. Epstein

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Figure 1

The normal roles that epicardium and epicardial-derived cells (EPDCs) play in development may have important implications for therapeutic approaches to adult heart disease.

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The normal roles that epicardium and epicardial-derived cells (EPDCs) pl...
(A) Direct conversion of EPDCs to cardiomyocytes appears to occur rarely in development but may be induced by thymosin-β4 after injury. (B) Cardiac fibroblasts derive from embryonic epicardium and can be induced to transdifferentiate into cardiac muscle by transcription factors (TFs) or miRNAs. (C) The epicardium is a necessary source of growth factors for normal development of the myocardium. EPDCs may also produce growth factors that could be used therapeutically to enhance cardiomyocyte regeneration. (D) cCFU-Fs are a population of epicardial-derived cells within the heart that have the ability to differentiate to a number of cell types in vitro, including cardiomyocytes.