心脏再生机制及细胞疗法应用研究进展

Mechanisms of Heart Regeneration and Cell Therapy

相比其他的疾病而言,心衰一直是很多患者的头号杀手,它是由心肌细胞大量死亡导致的,因此心肌再生上的研究是十分重要的。在牛蛙,鱼和一些哺乳动物中,心脏再生已经取得了很多重要的实验进展,得到了很好的实验结果,但对于人出生后,心脏再生却受限于心肌细胞重塑缓慢,对于人的受伤心脏再生而言,现在用的常规技术是利用成体干细胞或者多功能干细胞进行诱导分化,这一过程运用到细胞重编程和组织重建工程,尽管现在对于这项研究仍然存在着很多挑战,但这项研究的发展可能会最终使得心力衰竭的预防和治愈有一个很好的结果。

Heart failure continues to be the leading cause of mortality worldwide. Its onset is commonly triggered by massive death of cardiomyocytes due to injury or disease. Therefore, exploring methods to replenish dead cardiomocytes, typically known as heart regeneration, are critical to disease treatment. Natural heart regeneration is well documented in amphibians, fish, as well as some mammals. Humans hearts, however, have very limited regenerative capacity owing to the extremely low turnover rate of cardiomyocytes. Thus, strategies to remuscularize the damaged myocardium are heavily focused on utilizing cardiomyocytes differentiated from human pluripotent stem cells. Despite the many challenges ahead, therapies utilizing human pluripotent stem cells are expected to vastly improve the outcome of heart failure patients.