Introduction to methods in molecular cardiology.

Molecular cardiology is a new area of cardiovascular medicine that aims to apply molecular biological techniques for the mechanistic investigation, diagnosis, prevention, and treatment of cardiovascular disease. As an emerging discipline, it has changed our conceptual thinking of cardiovascular development, disease etiology, and pathophysiology. Although molecular cardiology is still at a very early stage, it has opened a promising avenue for understanding and controlling cardiovascular disease. With the rapid development and application of molecular biological techniques, scientists and clinicians are closer to curing heart diseases that were thought to be incurable 20 yr ago. There clearly is a need for a more thorough understanding of the molecular mechanisms of cardiovascular diseases to promote the advancement of cell and gene therapy for heart diseases. This chapter briefly reviews state-of-the-art techniques in the area of molecular cardiology.