Cardiac Regeneration

Since Robert Gross inaugurated pediatric cardiac surgery in 1938 and since the advent of open-heart surgery on cardiopulmonary bypass in the 1950s, mortality from congenital heart disease has plummeted. However, many of the more complex forms of congenital heart disease still cannot be physiologically corrected; rather, patients are surgically palliated, permitting survival but leaving significant residual cardiac pressure and volume loads. Over time, these patients are at risk for heart failure, and some ultimately require heart transplantation. A major biological factor that constrains treatment options for congenital heart disease patients, as well as adults with acquired heart disease, is the limited ability of mature mammalian cardiomyocytes to proliferate. The low innate regenerative Congenital Heart Disease Compendium