Epigenetic factors and cardiac development

Abstract

Congenital heart malformations remain the leading cause of death related to birth defects. Recent advances in developmental and regenerative cardiology have shed light on a mechanistic understanding of heart development that is controlled by a transcriptional network of genetic and epigenetic factors. This article reviews the roles of chromatin remodelling factors important for cardiac development with the current knowledge of cardiac morphogenesis, regeneration, and direct cardiac differentiation. In the last 5 years, critical roles of epigenetic factors have been revealed in the cardiac research field. © 2011 The Author.