Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-8bhkd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-17T10:15:08.976Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Stem cells and cardiac hypertrophy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 October 2005

Chiara Castellani ,
Mila Della Barbera ,
Marialuisa Valente ,
Gaetano Thiene  and
Annalisa Angelini
Chiara Castellani
Affiliation:
University of Padua, Institute of Pathological Anatomy, Padua, Italy
Mila Della Barbera
Affiliation:
University of Padua, Institute of Pathological Anatomy, Padua, Italy
Marialuisa Valente
Affiliation:
University of Padua, Institute of Pathological Anatomy, Padua, Italy
Gaetano Thiene
Affiliation:
University of Padua, Institute of Pathological Anatomy, Padua, Italy
Annalisa Angelini
Affiliation:
University of Padua, Institute of Pathological Anatomy, Padua, Italy
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

The concept that the adult heart is a terminally differentiated organ has been generally accepted for many years. As a post-mitotic organ, the heart has been considered to be characterized by a predetermined number of parenchymal cells. This number is held to be defined at birth, and is preserved until death of the organ and/or the organism. According to this concept, the increase of myocardial mass, or in other words, myocardial hypertrophy, is interpreted on the basis of growth of single terminally differentiated myocytes, able to produce contractile elements and organelles, but not capable of division. Ventricular remodelling has been envisaged, therefore, as a balance between the phenomenon leading to either increase in cardiac mass, in other words hypertrophy, or loss of myocytes, as occurring in apoptosis or necrosis.

Keywords

Hypertrophycardiac stem cellsremodellingNorwood procedureshuman myocardium
Type
Second International Workshop
Information
Cardiology in the Young , Volume 15 , Supplement S3 , December 2005 , pp. 17 - 20
Copyright
© 2005 Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)