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The Development and Regeneration of Coronary Arteries

  • Regenerative Medicine (SM Wu, Section Editor)
  • Published:
Current Cardiology Reports Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Purpose of Review

In this review, we aim to summarize and discuss the cellular origins of the coronary endothelial cells during development and neovascularization in the adult stage after cardiac injury.

Recent findings

Recent work identified three different developmental origins for coronary endothelial cells: proepicardium, endocardium, and sinus venosus. However, the level of contribution by each source remains debated. During heart injury and regeneration, although multiple cell types such as endothelial progenitor cells, epicardial cells, and endocardial cells were reported to contribute neovascularization, convincing evidence is still lacking.. Recently, fibroblasts were reported to contribute to endothelial cells after cardiac injury through mesenchymal-to-endothelial transition. A subsequent study demonstrated that pre-existing endothelial cells mainly mediate cardiac neovascularization after injury.

Summary

The developmental origins of coronary vessels are diverse and further studies are needed to address the exact contribution from each source and the molecular mechanism governing distinct vessel formation programs. In the adult stage, neovascularization is mainly mediated by the pre-existing endothelial cells, with negligible contribution from other sources.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Strategic Priority Research Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS, XDB19000000, XDA16020204), National Science Foundation of China (31730112, 91639302, 31625019, 81761138040, 31701292),

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. The State Key Laboratory of Cell Biology, CAS Center for Excellence on Molecular Cell Science, Shanghai Institute of Biochemistry and Cell Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, 200031, China

    Lingjuan He & Bin Zhou

  2. Key Laboratory of Nutrition and Metabolism, Institute for Nutritional Sciences, Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, 200031, China

    Lingjuan He & Bin Zhou

  3. School of Life Science and Technology, ShanghaiTech University, Shanghai, 201210, China

    Bin Zhou

  4. Key Laboratory of Regenerative Medicine of Ministry of Education, Institute of Aging and Regenerative Medicine, Jinan University, Guangzhou, 510632, China

    Bin Zhou

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  1. Lingjuan He
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Correspondence to Bin Zhou.

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Lingjuan He and Bin Zhou declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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This article does not contain any studies with human or animal subjects performed by any of the authors.

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He, L., Zhou, B. The Development and Regeneration of Coronary Arteries. Curr Cardiol Rep 20, 54 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11886-018-0999-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11886-018-0999-2

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