Cardiac Stem Cells as Biomarkers

Abstract

This chapter discusses the importance that the discovery of resident cardiac stem cells has had and continues to have on our evolving understanding of myocardial biology. Cardiac stem cells have acquired a progressively critical role in myocardial aging and heart failure suggesting that both these processes may be viewed as stem cell diseases. We have focused on the molecular signature and the telomere-telomerase axis to define novel biomarkers able to characterize the growth reserve of the intact and pathologic heart, major determinant of the adaptive and maladaptive response of the myocardium.