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A Chemical Biology Approach to Myocardial Regeneration

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Abstract

Heart failure is one of the major causes of death in the Western world because cardiac muscle loss is largely irreversible and can lead to a relentless decline in cardiac function. Novel therapies are needed since the only therapy to effectively replace lost myocytes today is transplantation of the entire heart. The advent of embryonic and induced pluripotent stem cell (ESC/iPSC) technologies offers the unprecedented possibility of devising cell replacement therapies for numerous degenerative disorders. Not only are ESCs and iPSCs a plausible source of cardiomyocytes in vitro for transplantation, they are also useful tools to elucidate the biology of stem cells that reside in the adult heart and define signaling molecules that might enhance the limited regenerative capability of the adult human heart. Here, we review the extracellular factors that control stem cell cardiomyogenesis and describe new approaches that combine embryology with stem cell biology to discover drug-like small molecules that stimulate cardiogenesis and potentially contribute to the development of pharmaceutical strategies for heart muscle regeneration.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by grants from the NIH (R37HL59502, R33HL088266) and California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) (RC1001321) to MM; CIRM (SEED RS1001691) and T Foundation to JRC; and CIRM Training Grant T2-00004 and American Heart Association for postdoctoral grant to EW.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute, 10901 N. Torrey Pines Rd., La Jolla, CA, 92037, USA

    Erik Willems, Elvira Forte, Frederick Lo & Mark Mercola

  2. Human BioMolecular Research Institute, 5310 Eastgate Mall, San Diego, CA, 92121, USA

    Marion Lanier & John Cashman

  3. ChemRegen Inc., 11171 Corte Cangrejo, San Diego, CA, 92130, USA

    Erik Willems, Marion Lanier, John Cashman & Mark Mercola

  4. Department of Bioengineering, University of California San Diego, 9500 Gilman Drive, La Jolla, CA, 92093, USA

    Frederick Lo

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  1. Erik Willems
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  3. Elvira Forte
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Correspondence to Mark Mercola.

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Willems, E., Lanier, M., Forte, E. et al. A Chemical Biology Approach to Myocardial Regeneration. J. of Cardiovasc. Trans. Res. 4, 340–350 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12265-011-9270-6

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