Neocardiogenesis
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In cardiology neocardiogenesis is the homeostatic regeneration, repair and renewal of sections of malfunctioning adult cardiovascular tissue. This includes a combination of cardiomyogenesis (the regeneration of cardiac muscle) and angiogenesis (the regeneration of blood vessels).[1]
The term neocardiogenesis comes from cardiogenesis, which refers to the development of the heart in the embryo; neocardiogenesis, in turn, means the development of the heart in adults. The heart has mechanisms already in place that are responsible for small scale repair. However, these repair mechanisms are not sufficient for large scale repair, made necessary by events such as myocardial infarctions. Neocardiogenesis replaces dead cardiac muscle cells with living cells so that both the structure and function of the heart are maintained. This improves myocardial pumping of fluid around the body.[2]
Background
The human heart has been thought of as a postmitotic organ. Cardiomyocytes (muscle cells of the heart) were thought to be terminally differentiated cells that were irreplaceable and thus required to maintain cardiac function throughout life. However it is now known that the heart is able to regenerate new small vessels needed to repair an ischemic (lacking blood) myocardium. The belief that humans are born with a fixed number of cardiomyocytes, and that the growth of these cells was directly responsible for the growth of the heart, has also been disproven.[3] Reports of the heart's ability to repair itself have started to appear in peer reviewed journals[4] and a paper has been published that has shown the potential of bone marrow cells to regenerate myocardium (myogenesis).[5] Other studies into the regeneration of myocardium have reported evidence of angiogenesis,[6] although such studies have been found to contain discrepancies.[7]
It has been reported that improvement in heart contractility has occurred as a result of the induction of angiogenesis.[8]
