The mammalian hearts have the least regenerative capabilities among tissues and organs. As such, heart regeneration has been and continues to be the ultimate goal in the treatment against acquired and congenital heart diseases. Uncovering such a long-awaited therapy is still extremely challenging in the current settings. On the other hand, this desperate need for effective heart regeneration has developed various forms of modern biotechnologies in recent years. These involve the transplantation of pluripotent stem cell-derived cardiac progenitors or cardiomyocytes generated in vitro and novel biochemical molecules along with tissue engineering platforms. Such newly generated technologies and approaches have been shown to effectively proliferate cardiomyocytes and promote heart repair in the diseased settings, albeit mainly preclinically. These novel tools and medicines give somehow credence to breaking down the barriers associated with re-building heart muscle. However, in order to maximize efficacy and achieve better clinical outcomes through these cell-based and/or cell-free therapies, it is crucial to understand more deeply the developmental cellular hierarchies/paths and molecular mechanisms in normal or pathological cardiogenesis. Indeed, the morphogenetic process of mammalian cardiac development is highly complex and spatiotemporally regulated by various types of cardiac progenitors and their paracrine mediators. Here we discuss the most recent knowledge and findings in cardiac progenitor cell biology and the major cardiogenic paracrine mediators in the settings of cardiogenesis, congenital heart disease, and heart regeneration.

中文翻译：

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心脏祖细胞和旁分泌介质在心脏发生和心脏再生中的作用。

哺乳动物心脏在组织和器官中的再生能力最低。因此，心脏再生一直是并且将继续是针对获得性和先天性心脏病的治疗的最终目标。在当前环境下，发现这种期待已久的疗法仍然极具挑战性。另一方面，近年来迫切需要有效的心脏再生，已发展出各种形式的现代生物技术。这些涉及移植体外产生的多能干细胞来源的心脏祖细胞或心肌细胞，以及新型生化分子以及组织工程平台的移植。尽管主要在临床前，这种新产生的技术和方法已被证明可以有效增殖心肌细胞并促进患病环境中的心脏修复。这些新颖的工具和药物以某种方式为打破与重建心肌相关的障碍提供了保证。然而，为了通过这些基于细胞和/或无细胞的疗法最大化功效并获得更好的临床结果，至关重要的是更深入地了解正常或病理性心脏发生中的发育性细胞层次/路径和分子机制。确实，哺乳动物心脏发育的形态发生过程是高度复杂的，并由各种类型的心脏祖细胞及其旁分泌介质进行时空调控。在这里，我们讨论了心脏祖细胞生物学的最新知识和发现，以及在心脏发生，先天性心脏病和心脏再生方面的主要心源性旁分泌介质。