The global burden caused by cardiovascular disease is substantial, with heart disease
representing the most common cause of death around the world. There remains a need to …

Rotor-guided ablation has opened new perspectives into the therapy of atrial fibrillation (AF).
Analysis of the spatio-temporal cardiac excitation patterns in the frequency and phase …

Rationale: Multiple biological mechanisms contribute to the efficacy of cardiac cell therapy.
Most prominent among these are direct heart muscle and blood vessel regeneration from …

Background—Ex vivo expansion of resident cardiac stem cells, followed by delivery to the
heart, may favor regeneration and functional improvement. Methods and Results …

Apoptosis serves as a protective mechanism by eliminating damaged cells through
programmed cell death. After apoptotic cells pass critical checkpoints, including …

Real-time mapping and manipulation of electrophysiology in three-dimensional (3D) tissues
could have important impacts on fundamental scientific and clinical studies, yet realization is …

Skeletal myoblasts are an attractive cell type for transplantation because they are
autologous and resistant to ischemia. However, clinical trials of myoblast transplantation in …

Background—Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) are bone marrow stromal cells that are in
phase 1 clinical studies of cellular cardiomyoplasty. However, the electrophysiological …

Cardiac side effects are one of the major causes of drug candidate failures in preclinical
drug development or in clinical trials and are responsible for the retraction of several already …

Rationale: Gap junctions mediate cell-to-cell electric coupling of cardiomyocytes. The
primary gap junction protein in the working myocardium, connexin43 (Cx43), exhibits …