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(Circulation Research. 2003;92:477.)
© 2003 American Heart Association, Inc.

Editorials

Modeling Development of the Epicardium and Coronary Vasculature

In Vitro Veritas?

Cathy J. Hatcher, Craig T. Basson

From the Molecular Cardiology Laboratory, Cardiology Division, Department of Medicine, and Department of Cell and Developmental Biology, Weill Medical College of Cornell University, New York, NY.

Correspondence to Craig T. Basson, MD, PhD, Molecular Cardiology Laboratory, Cardiology Division, Department of Medicine, Weill Medical College of Cornell University, 525 E 68th St, New York, NY 10021. E-mail ctbasson@med.cornell.edu

Key Words: epicardium • coronary arteries • tissue culture • heart development

An extract of the first 250 words of the full text is provided, because this article has no abstract.

"Your vision will become clear only when you can look into your own heart...Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes."

— Carl Jung

The ontogeny and interrelationships of the epicardium surrounding the heart and the vascular beds and conduction pathways investing it remain fundamental mysteries of cardiovascular development. Although several molecules and discrete signaling events have been identified, we lack a detailed schematic of the relevant molecular genetic cascades. Genetic etiologies for congenital heart defects affecting the epicardium and the coronary vasculature have yet to be defined. Successful clinical manipulation of stem cells from a variety of sources in order to recreate blood vessels and conduction tissues in the diseased adult heart would be greatly enhanced by the discovery of a Rosetta stone to decode the key biochemical events and their interactions that comprise such embryonic cardiovascular processes.

In order to define molecular regulation of coronary vasculogenesis and Purkinje fiber development in the heart, investigators have largely relied on chick and mouse models of cardiogenesis. These animal models have led them to look outside the primitive heart tube for the earliest events that initiate the establishment of these tissues. Such studies have highlighted the contribution of the proepicardial organ (PEO). The PEO (Figure) is an outgrowth of a cluster of extracardiac mesothelial cells on the dorsal body wall adjacent to the heart tube’s atrioventricular canal. Cells from the PEO are the precursors for several lineages within the heart including epicardial epithelial cells, myocardial connective tissue cells, coronary . . . [Full Text of this Article]