Left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH) is a strong predictor of adverse cardiovascular outcomes. It is the result of complex mechanisms that include not only an increase in protein synthesis and cell size but also proliferating cardiac progenitor cells and the influx of bone marrow-derived cells developing into cardiomyocytes. Stem and progenitor cells are known to contribute to the renewal of adul...

AIMS A variety of human inherited heart diseases affect the normal functions of cardiomyocytes (CMs), endothelial cells (ECs), or smooth muscle cells (SMCs). To study human heart disease and generate cardiac cells for basic and translational research, an efficient strategy is needed for production of cardiac lineages from human stem cells. In the present study, a highly reproducible method was ...

BACKGROUND Endogenous cardiac progenitor cells are a promising option for cell-therapy for myocardial infarction (MI). However, obtaining adequate numbers of cardiac progenitors after MI remains a challenge. Cardiospheres (CSs) have been proposed to have cardiac regenerative properties; however, their cellular composition and how they may be influenced by the tissue milieu remains unclear. ME...

Our limited ability to improve the survival of patients with heart failure is attributable, in part, to the inability of the mammalian heart to meaningfully regenerate itself. The recent identification of distinct families of multipotent cardiovascular progenitor cells from endogenous, as well as exogenous, sources, such as embryonic and induced pluripotent stem cells, has raised much hope that...

During organogenesis, the liver develops from the foregut endoderm and grows into the adjacent septum transversum resulting in the formation of the liver bud. Growth factors released from the septum transversum and the cardiac mesenchyme induce endodermal differentiation and proliferation, thus, forming the primordial liver and extrahepatic biliary structures. Endodermal precursor cells within ...

A microRNA regulates the expression of a network of genes in the heart to ensure that progenitor cells develop into strongly contractile cardiac muscle.

BACKGROUND Angiotensin-(1-7) improves cardiac function and remodeling after myocardial infarction (MI). This may involve recruitment of hematopoietic progenitor cells that support angiogenesis. However, angiotensin-(1-7) is rapidly metabolized in plasma and tissue. The authors investigated in mice the effect of a metabolically stable angiotensin-(1-7) analogue, cyclic angiotensin-(1-7), on prog...