Epicardium-to-fat transition in injured heart

• 来源期刊: 细胞研究（英文版）
• 年，卷（期）: 2014,（11）
• 页码范围: 1367-1369
• 页数: 3页
• 语种: 中文
• DOI: 10.1038/cr.2014.125

摘要

Dear Editor, The origin of fat cells or adipocytes is a fundamental biological question with important ramifications for human health and disease [1].Epicardial fat is associated with increased risk of cardiovascular diseases such as coronary atherosclerosis [2].However,the origin of these epicardial fat cells remains largely unknown.Epicardial progenitors play a pivotal role in the developing heart,by secreting paracrine signals and by differentiating into fibroblasts,smooth muscle cells,and potentially endothelial cells and cardiomyocytes [3-6].Some of these developmental programs are reactivated during postnatal heart injury [7,8],and reactivated adult epicardial progenitors provide pro-angiogenic protection and undergo limited epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition in cardiac injury [7,9].Since epicardial fat is physically adjacent to epicardial cells,we hypothesized that some of these cells originate from the epicardium during development and in postnatal heart injury.