This Article Full Text Full Text (PDF) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Citation Map Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Request Permissions Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Pfister, O. Articles by Liao, R. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Pfister, O. Articles by Liao, R. Related Collections Related Article

(Circulation Research. 2008;102:998.)
© 2008 American Heart Association, Inc.

Editorials

Pump to Survive

Novel Cytoprotective Strategies for Cardiac Progenitor Cells

Otmar Pfister, Ronglih Liao

From Myocardial Research, Department of Biomedicine, and Division of Cardiology (O.P.), University Hospital Basel, Switzerland; and Cardiac Muscle Research Laboratory, Cardiovascular Division, Department of Medicine (R.L.), Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Mass.

Correspondence to Dr Ronglih Liao, Cardiovascular Division, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, 77 Ave Louis Pasteur, NRB 431, Boston, MA 02115. E-mail rliao@rics.bwh.harvard.edu

See related article, pages 1075–1081

Key Words: Abcg2 • cardiac side population cells • cardiac progenitor cells • cytoprotection • therapeutic target

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

The discovery of primitive cardiac stem-like cells with the ability for self-renewal and the capacity for differentiation into all cardiac cell lineages has completely changed the prevailing view of the heart as a static, terminally differentiated organ.¹ Like virtually all somatic tissues, the adult heart harbors a pool of stem/progenitor cells responsible for the maintenance of organ cell homeostasis. In this new concept, cardiac stem cells take central stage in the maintenance of the cellular and functional integrity of the heart throughout a lifetime. Perturbation of the cardiac stem cell pool by premature senescence or cellular injury may thus result in inadequate replenishment of functionally competent cardiac cells and ultimately lead to the development of organ failure.² Hence, an understanding of the mechanisms regulating this cardiac stem cell pool is pivotal for the investigation of cardiac injury and dysfunction and may offer opportunities to promote myocardial repair and regeneration following tissue injury.

The obvious conceptual and therapeutic significance of cardiovascular stem cell biology has sparked an enormous interest in the study of resident cardiac stem/progenitor cells. Since the first identification of endogenous cardiac stem/progenitor cells in adult hearts 6 years ago by Hierlihy et al,³ several independent laboratories have confirmed the existence of resident cardiac stem-like cells and characterized their cardiomyogenic potential in vitro and in vivo in mammalian as well as human hearts (reviewed previously⁴). The urgent need for a convenient methodology to identify and isolate putative cardiac stem cells prompted early studies to focus on their phenotypic . . . [Full Text of this Article]

Related Article:

Hypoxia-Inducible Factor-2 Transactivates Abcg2 and Promotes Cytoprotection in Cardiac Side Population Cells

Cindy M. Martin, Anwarul Ferdous, Teresa Gallardo, Caroline Humphries, Hesham Sadek, Arianna Caprioli, Joseph A. Garcia, Luke I. Szweda, Mary G. Garry, and Daniel J. Garry
Circ. Res. 2008 102: 1075-1081. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]