Volume 14 Issue 1, January 2017

Ischaemic cardiomyopathy leads to destruction of cardiomyocytes beyond the regenerative potential of the adult human heart. The murine heart can regenerate in utero and shortly after birth, but oxidative stress eventually arrests cardiomyocyte division. Chronic hypoxia in mice has now been shown to induce the cell cycle in cardiomyocytes, resulting in cardiac regeneration.

Atherosclerosis is a disease of ageing, and the most common cause of death in the industrialized world. Cell senescence and the therapeutic removal of senescent cells using 'senolytics' are topical areas of science and translational medicine. A new study reports surprising findings on cell senescence and atherosclerosis with important therapeutic implications.

Genome editing is being rapidly adopted into all fields of biomedical research, including the cardiovascular field. In this Review, Strong and Musunuru discuss the applications of genome-editing technology, including zinc finger nucleases, TALENs, and CRISPR/Cas9 systems, throughout cardiovascular disease research, their current limitations, and the prospect ofin vivogenome-editing therapies in the future.

Unstable plaques have been used as a target for imaging and drug discovery, and as a model of atherosclerosis in preclinical experiments. In this Review, Pasterkamp and colleagues describe the temporal shift in the characteristics of plaques in patients with acute coronary syndrome, and argue that the 'vulnerable plaque' concept might no longer be relevant to current practice.

Chronic activation of neurohormonal systems, such as the sympathetic nervous system and the renin–angiotensin–aldosterone system can lead to deleterious effects on the heart. In this Review, Hartupee and Mann describe the effects of neurohormonal activation in patients with heart failure with reduced ejection fraction, and the implications for disease progression.

Thyroid hormones have an important role in maintaining cardiovascular homeostasis, and subtle changes in thyroid hormone concentrations adversely influence the cardiovascular system. In this Review, Jabbar et al. discuss the role of thyroid hormones in the pathogenesis and management of cardiovascular diseases such as heart failure and acute myocardial infarction, and outline the utility of therapy with thyroid hormones for the management of these conditions.

In this Perspectives article, Captur et al. explain the fundamental principles of fractal geometry, and summarize cardiovascular studies in which fractal methods have been used to investigate disease mechanisms. The authors propose that clinical researchers can deploy innovative fractal solutions to common cardiac problems, which might ultimately translate into advancements in patient care.