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Updated: Dec 11, 2025
Pluripotent Stem Cell Derived Cardiac Cells for Myocardial Repair
Published on: February 3, 2017
Adult Cardiomyocyte Proliferation: a New Insight for Myocardial Infarction Therapy
Feng Zhu1, Qingyou Meng1, You Yu1
1Department of Cardiovascular Surgery of the First Affiliated Hospital & Institute for Cardiovascular Science, Soochow University, Suzhou, 215123, Jiangsu, China.
Insights
Heart attacks cause cell loss and heart failure. This review explores stimulating adult cardiomyocyte proliferation for cardiac repair, offering a new therapeutic strategy for heart attack recovery.
Area of Science:
- Cardiovascular Biology
- Regenerative Medicine
- Cardiac Pathophysiology
Background:
- Myocardial infarction (MI) results in cardiomyocyte loss, leading to pathological cardiac remodeling and heart failure.
- Current treatments for MI cannot replace lost cardiomyocytes, and long-term outcomes remain poor.
- Adult mammalian cardiomyocytes have limited proliferation capacity, insufficient for cardiac repair.
Purpose of the Study:
- To review mechanisms and targets for stimulating adult cardiomyocyte proliferation.
- To explore endogenous regeneration as a therapeutic strategy for myocardial infarction.
- To provide a basis for novel clinical treatments for heart attack recovery.
Main Methods:
- Literature review of studies on cardiomyocyte cell cycle re-entry.
- Analysis of major mechanisms regulating adult cardiomyocyte proliferation.
- Identification of potential therapeutic targets for stimulating endogenous cardiac repair.
Main Results:
- Stimulating cardiomyocyte cell cycle re-entry is a feasible approach for cardiac repair.
- Several key mechanisms and molecular targets have been identified for promoting cardiomyocyte proliferation.
- Activating endogenous regenerative pathways holds promise for treating MI.
Conclusions:
- Promoting adult cardiomyocyte proliferation represents a promising therapeutic strategy for myocardial infarction.
- Targeting specific mechanisms can enhance the heart's regenerative capacity post-MI.
- Activating endogenous regeneration offers a potential new clinical treatment for heart failure after heart attack.
Abstract:
Myocardial infarction leads to cardiomyocyte loss, ensuing ventricular pathological remodeling, dramatic impairment of cardiac function, and ultimately heart failure. Unfortunately, the existing therapeutical treatments cannot directly replenish the lost myocytes in the injured myocardium and the long-term prognosis of heart failure after myocardial infarction remains poor. Growing investigations have demonstrated that the adult mammalian cardiomyocytes possess very limited proliferation capacity, and that was not enough to restore the injured heart. Recently, many studies were targeting to promote cardiomyocyte proliferation via inducing cardiomyocyte cell cycle re-entry for cardiac repair after myocardial infarction. Indeed, these results showed it is a feasible way to stimulate terminally differentiated cardiomyocyte proliferation. Here, we reviewed the major mechanisms and the potential targets for stimulating mammalian adult cardiomyocyte proliferation specifically. This will provide a new therapeutic strategy for the clinical treatment of myocardial infarction by activating the endogenous regeneration. Graphical abstract.
