BIOL 4510 Lecture 19: BIOL 4510 Lecture 19 Stem Cells 2.pdf
Document Summary
Regenerative medicine uses genes, proteins and cells to repair or replace damaged organs. Some tissues display regenerative properties, such as blood, bone, and liver. However, the heart (and brain) has very limited regenerative capacity. This is unfortunate since a big cardiovascular problem is myocardial infarction (heart attack). This leads to a large loss of cells. Moreover, once a heart attack has occurred (cid:87)(cid:75)(cid:72)(cid:3)(cid:81)(cid:82)(cid:85)(cid:80)(cid:68)(cid:79)(cid:3)(cid:179)(cid:75)(cid:92)(cid:83)(cid:72)(cid:85)(cid:87)(cid:85)(cid:82)(cid:83)(cid:75)(cid:76)(cid:70)(cid:3)(cid:85)(cid:72)(cid:86)(cid:83)(cid:82)(cid:81)(cid:86)(cid:72)(cid:180)(cid:3)(cid:79)(cid:72)(cid:68)(cid:71)(cid:86)(cid:3) to further myocyte death and increased scarring. Major problem: after birth, cardiac myocyte regeneration is limited and the cells lost after a heart attack are not replenished . However, adult cardiac stem cells are present in the heart and other organs which can replenish cardiomyocytes. Cardiomyocyte regeneration must occur since: the heart looses about 2% of the cardiomyocyte per year, the number of heart cells in an normal adult is about more than 3 to 4-fold greater than a neonatal. This can be easily demonstrated by the following observations: heart weight increases by ~20 times from birth.
