Department of Biomedical Engineering, Tufts University, Medford, MA, USA.
Center for Biomedical Career Development, University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester, MA, USA.
Adv Exp Med Biol. 2018;1098:59-83. doi: 10.1007/978-3-319-97421-7_4.
The role of the cardiac extracellular matrix (cECM) in providing biophysical and biochemical cues to the cells housed within during disease and development has become increasingly apparent. These signals have been shown to influence many fundamental cardiac cell behaviors including contractility, proliferation, migration, and differentiation. Consequently, alterations to cell phenotype result in directed remodeling of the cECM. This bidirectional communication means that the cECM can be envisioned as a medium for information storage. As a result, the reprogramming of the cECM is increasingly being employed in tissue engineering and regenerative medicine as a method with which to treat disease. In this chapter, an overview of the composition and structure of the cECM as well as its role in cardiac development and disease will be provided. Additionally, therapeutic modulation of cECM for cardiac regeneration as well as bottom-up and top-down approaches to ECM-based cardiac tissue engineering is discussed. Finally, lingering questions regarding the role of cECM in tissue engineering and regenerative medicine are offered as a catalyst for future research.
心脏细胞外基质（cECM）在疾病和发育过程中为细胞提供生物物理和生化线索的作用变得越来越明显。这些信号已被证明会影响许多基本的心脏细胞行为，包括收缩性、增殖、迁移和分化。因此，细胞表型的改变导致 cECM 的定向重塑。这种双向通讯意味着 cECM 可以被视为信息存储的介质。因此，cECM 的重编程越来越多地被应用于组织工程和再生医学中，作为一种治疗疾病的方法。在本章中，将提供 cECM 的组成和结构及其在心脏发育和疾病中的作用概述。此外，还讨论了 cECM 用于心脏再生的治疗调节以及基于 ECM 的心脏组织工程的自下而上和自上而下方法。最后，提供了关于 cECM 在组织工程和再生医学中作用的悬而未决的问题，作为未来研究的催化剂。
