Models and remodeling: mechanisms and clinical implications.

Ventricular remodeling is a process by which the size, shape and composition of cardiac chambers as well as the thickness and composition of the walls are altered in response to physical loads and/or receptor activation, whether created by loss or overload of cardiac myocytes, or the effects of external hormonal or chemical factors. Involved in this process are hypertrophy, dilation, myocyte loss whether due to necrosis or apoptosis, and myocyte hyperplasia. The present review discusses the dynamic and plastic structure of the heart in its capacity to respond to loading. The mechanisms by which myocyte growth as well as myocyte loss are mediated offer therapeutic opportunities to alter these events.