心外膜的发育

心外膜是覆盖在心脏外层的间皮组织。心外膜来源于脏壁中胚层的前心外膜,后者位于心管流入极附近。心外膜的部分细胞通过上皮间充质转化进入心外膜下层,随后形成血管内皮、成纤维和平滑肌细胞,最终导致冠脉系统的形成。心外膜细胞可能形成心肌细胞,并且可能是心脏驻留干细胞的来源。因此,它在心脏修复治疗中发挥巨大作用。本文回顾了该领域的最新研究进展并且提出了目前存在的问题。

Epicardium development

The epicardium is a mesothelium forming the outermost layer of the heart. It develops from the proepicardium, which originates from the splanchnic mesoderm at the inflow pole of the heart. During epicardial formation, a subset of epicardial cells detaches, undergoes epithelial-to-mesenchyme transition and migrates into the snbepicardium, and subsequently into the myocardium. This population gives rise to endothelial cells, fibroblast cells, and smooth muscle cells forming the coronary vessels. The potential of epicardial cells to generate myocardial cells has made them a novel source of adult stem cells useful in clinical therapy. This review presents the current advances in study of epicardium biology and also discusses the problems within the field.