title: Lives of a heart cell: tracing the origins of cardiac progenitors.
abstract: Heart cells are the unitary elements that define cardiac function and disease. The recent identification of distinct families of cardiovascular progenitor cells begins to build a foundation for our understanding of the developmental logic of human cardiovascular disease, and also points to new approaches to arrest and/or reverse its progression, a major goal of regenerative medicine. In this review, we highlight recent clarifications, revisions, and advances in our understanding of the many lives of a heart cell, with a primary focus on the emerging links between cardiogenesis and heart stem cell biology.
authors.affiliation: Cardiovascular Research Center, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, 185 Cambridge Street, Boston, MA 02114-2790, USA.
authors.forename: Silvia
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Martin-Puig
authors.forename: Zhong
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Kenneth R
authors.initials: KR
authors.lastname: Chien
mesh_terms: D002318:Cardiovascular Diseases / Q000503:physiopathology*; D006801:Humans; D009206:Myocardium / Q000166:cytology*; D044968:Regenerative Medicine; D013234:Stem Cells / Q000166:cytology*