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(Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis, and Vascular Biology. 2008;28:803.)
© 2008 American Heart Association, Inc.

Editorials

The Adult Epicardium

Realizing the Potential for Neovascular Therapy

Paul R. Riley

From the UCL Institute of Child Health, London, UK.

Correspondence to Dr Paul Riley, University College London, Institute of Child Health, 30 Guildford St, London, WC1N 1EH, UK. E-mail P.riley@ich.ucl.ac.uk

An extract of the first 250 words of the full text is provided, because this article has no abstract.

From the first description of its origins by the Polish-German anatomist Robert Remak in 1855, through to latter day studies into its role in establishing the coronary vasculature (reviewed in¹), the embryological epicardium (outermost mesothelial epithelial layer that envelops the developing heart) has intrigued embryologists, cell biologists, and cardiologists alike. The adult epicardium, on the other hand, has been consigned to the overall view that the mature mammalian heart is a terminally differentiated postmitotic organ in which the major structural cell types survive a life time without support from either new vascular or myocardial cells. However, recently the quiescent nature of the adult epicardium has been contested. After appropriate stimulation (by the actin monomer binding protein Thymosin β4) adult epicardium-derived cells (EPDCs) were shown to have the capacity to proliferate, migrate, and differentiate ex vivo into vascular endothelial cells, smooth muscle cells, and adventitial fibroblasts, thus recapitulating their embryonic potency.² This study unearthed the therapeutic potential of the adult epicardium in terms of inducing neovascularization after myocardial injury. That the adult epicardium may be even more plastic and respond to multiple signaling pathways, to restore pluripotency, is now presented in this issue of Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis, and Vascular Biology, by Urayama et al.³

See accompanying article on page 841

Here the authors describe a novel role for prokineticin signaling in the adult heart. The prokineticins are related to venom-like proteins and have been implicated in a wide range of biological activities including sensory function, circadian rhythms, and survival and . . . [Full Text of this Article]

Related Article:

Prokineticin Receptor-1 Induces Neovascularization and Epicardial-Derived Progenitor Cell Differentiation

Kyoji Urayama, Célia Guilini, Gulen Turkeri, Selcuk Takir, Hitoshi Kurose, Nadia Messaddeq, Andrée Dierich, and Canan G. Nebigil
Arterioscler Thromb Vasc Biol 2008 28: 841-849. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]