Unchain my heart: The scientific foundations of cardiac repair

Abstract

In humans, the biological limitations to cardiac regenerative growth create both a clinical imperative - to offset cell death in acute ischemic injury and chronic heart failure - and a clinical opportunity; that is, for using cells, genes, and proteins to rescue cardiac muscle cell number or in other ways promote more efficacious cardiac repair. Recent experimental studies and early-phase clinical trials lend credence to the visionary goal of enhancing cardiac repair as an achievable therapeutic target.