Epicardium-to-fat transition in injured heart
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.
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This work was supported by the Ministry of Science and Technology of China 2012CB945102 and 2013CB945302,the National Natural Science Foundation of China 91339104,31271552,31222038,the Chinese Academy of Sciences Hundred Talents Program; KSCX2-EW-R-09,Organization Department of the CPC Central Committee Bajian Talents Program,Shanghai Pujiang Program 11PJ1411400 and Basic Research Key Project 14JC1407400.WTP was funded by NIH 2 R01 HL094683.
2014-12-01（万方平台首次上网日期，不代表论文的发表时间）
1367-1369
