The exosomes carry new hope for cardiac regeneration

Abstract

Coronary artery disease (CAD) is the number one cause of death in developed countries (1,2). In the UK alone, there are 2 million people with CAD and 188,000 require treatment for a myocardial infarction (MI) each year. Because of the limited regenerative capacity of the human heart (3), an acute MI causes permanent damage that may ultimately result in heart failure (HF). The management of chronic HF has improved considerably in recent years but, at the same time, healthcare and social costs have rocketed. Therefore, there is an urgent need for new strategies potentially transforming palliative care into curative therapy.