Molecular Biology Commons^™

Epicardial Cell Engraftment And Signaling Promote Cardiac Repair After Myocardial Infarction, Krithika Rao

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

The epicardium is a single layer of epithelial (mesothelial) cells that covers the entire heart surface, but whose function in adult mammals is poorly understood. Defining the role of epicardial cells during homeostasis, growth and injury has potential to provide new treatment strategies for human diseases that result in heart failure, due to extensive loss of viable cardiac tissue. We hypothesized that epicardial cells contribute to repair as transplantable progenitor cells for cellular regeneration and as a source of secreted growth factors for cell protection after myocardial infarction.

Adult epicardial cells were prospectively isolated as uncommitted epithelial cells using epithelial-specific …