Cardiovascular Regeneration and Stem Cell Therapy

Abstract

Annarosa Leri, Piero Anversa, and William H. Frishman, eds. 229 pp. Oxford, UK: Blackwell Publishing; 2007. $134.95. ISBN 1-4051-4842-9 The past decade has witnessed extraordinary medical and scientific discovery: The human genome is now sequenced, human embryonic stem cells can be cultured, and the existence of endogenous tissue repair systems is newly appreciated. Technologically, our ability to image biological systems both in the intact organism and at microscopic levels also has advanced at a breathtaking pace. Many of these advances were difficult to imagine 10 to 15 years ago and, in many instances, have forced reappraisal of long-held biological paradigms. One of the most important examples of this is the concept of chronic irreversible damage to adult organs. The totality of discoveries has challenged and overturned the long-held paradigmatic view that (with few exceptions) the parenchyma of adult organs comprises terminally differentiated cells that must function for our entire lives. Wound healing and the ability of the liver to regenerate (myth of Prometheus is must reading) were considered exceptions that proved the rule. In the past several years, we have seen discoveries indicating that bone marrow and other sites harbor stem cells capable of differentiation into various lineages, including cardiac myocytes, and that the heart itself contains a pool of stem or precursor cells. Similar biology has emerged for other organ systems, notably the brain, long thought to …