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Cardiac Muscle Diseases

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Cardiomyocytes or cardiac muscle cells are vital for the heart function despite their numbers being considerably lower than other types of cells in cardiac tissue. The loss of cardiomyocytes and its insufficient regeneration is the major contributor in the pathogenesis of many cardiovascular diseases, including myocardial infarction, cardiac fibrosis and heart failure (Bergmann et al., 2009; Porrello et al., 2011b; Mollova et al., 2013). In fact, the injury induced adult myocardial tissue remodeling results from the lack of cardiomyocytes replenishment, while the neonatal and fetal myocardial tissues retain its contractile tissue from the proliferation of pre-existing cardiomyocytes after injury (Porrello et al., 2011b). This is mainly due …show more content…

Many studies in adult human heart also reported to replenish cardiomyocytes but the renewal rate has been reported differently ranging from 1% to 40% per year (Bergmann et al., 2009; Kajstura et al., 2010a; Mollova et al., 2013; Senyo et al., 2013). This wide variation is due to the techniques and parameters used to measure the cardiomyocyte proliferation in human hearts. Despite the variable degree of cardiomyocyte renewal rate has been reported, studies have revealed that adult cardiomyocytes can re-enter the cell cycle and it has the proliferative capacity. Unlike mammals, certain fishes, reptiles, and amphibians maintain the regenerative ability throughout the life, even at large cardiac defects (Jopling et al., 2010; Porrello et al., 2011b). The viable difference between the ability and inability of productive heart regeneration depends on the capability of cardiomyocyte to acquire its proliferative state. In this review, we discuss the activities of major cell cycle associated proteins in cardiomyocytes at different stages of heart development; the mechanisms of cardiomyocyte cell proliferation and its regulations before and after

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