Epistemology of Natural Strategies for Cardiac Tissue Repair

Is there maintenance in complex biological systems or life is a continuous space-time drift? The emphasis that in the past years has been placed on tissue repair is, at least, misplaced since this property coincides with the same strategy that handles development and maintenance, a strategy that is broadly adaptive. It is not a mere philosophical question, since it deals with limited cellular resources; indeed, the evolution towards multicellularity is a form of adaptation to the environment that involves a high cost in terms of biological resources to handle differentiation, specialization, establishment of functional hierarchies, and development of a complex organisms. It is, therefore, evident that the availability of resources for other forms of adaptation in adult life, such as the regeneration process for maintenance or repair, is limited. In this opinion, I will discuss the epistemology of natural strategies for cardiac tissue repair, since, in the twentieth century, the increase in life expectancy in some geographic areas has given rise to diseases generally less frequent in the first three or four decades of life; thus, the morbidity and mortality related to cardiovascular disease has shown all the negative aspects of arterial and cardiac ageing bringing to the foreground the problem of cardiac damage and of its repair.