Circulation research
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Circulation research · May 2015
Iron homeostasis and pulmonary hypertension: iron deficiency leads to pulmonary vascular remodeling in the rat.
Iron deficiency without anemia is prevalent in patients with idiopathic pulmonary arterial hypertension and associated with reduced exercise capacity and survival. ⋯ These data suggest a major role for iron in pulmonary vascular homeostasis and support the clinical evaluation of iron replacement in patients with pulmonary hypertension.
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Circulation research · Apr 2015
ReviewDirect cardiac reprogramming: progress and challenges in basic biology and clinical applications.
The discovery of induced pluripotent stem cells changed the field of regenerative medicine and inspired the technological development of direct reprogramming or the process by which one cell type is directly converted into another without reverting a stem cell state by overexpressing lineage-specific factors. Indeed, direct reprogramming has proven sufficient in yielding a diverse range of cell types from fibroblasts, including neurons, cardiomyocytes, endothelial cells, hematopoietic stem/progenitor cells, and hepatocytes. These studies revealed that somatic cells are more plastic than anticipated, and that transcription factors, microRNAs, epigenetic factors, secreted molecules, as well as the cellular microenvironment are all important for cell fate specification. ⋯ The first in vivo cardiac reprogramming reports were promising to repair infarcted hearts; however, the low induction efficiency of fully reprogrammed, functional induced cardiomyocyte-like cells has become a major challenge and hampered our understanding of the reprogramming process. Nevertheless, recent studies have identified several critical factors that may affect the efficiency and quality of cardiac induction and have provided new insights into the mechanisms of cardiac reprogramming. Here, we review the progress in direct reprogramming research and discuss the perspectives and challenges of this nascent technology in basic biology and clinical applications.