Translational Cardiology: defining limits and targets at the International Archives of Medicine

The Merriam-Webster dictionary reports the first use of “Translational Research†as early as 1986 and the definition given for this term was: “medical research that is concerned with facilitating the practical application of scientific discoveries to the development and implementation of new ways to prevent, diagnose, and treat disease, called also translational medicine†.The adjective “translational†stems from Classical Latin “translatioâ€, then probably Middle French â€translationâ€, to reach Middle English “translaciounâ€. The idea is to make a transfer from one idiom to another, yet keeping the intimate significance and sense, which is common to language translation methods. It properly stresses the relation to the transfer of scientific knowledge into practical applications. It is obvious how, in less than 30 years, translational research has pervaded all Science domains and how large is the interest of scientists and lay people for this subjec

Excitation-contraction coupling of human induced pluripotent stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes

Induced pluripotent stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes (iPSC-CMs) hold enormous potential in many fields of cardiovascular research. Overcoming many of the limitations of their embryonic counterparts, the application of iPSC-CMs ranges from facilitating investigation of familial cardiac disease and pharmacological toxicity screening to personalized medicine and autologous cardiac cell therapies. The main factor preventing the full realization of this potential is the limited maturity of iPSC-CMs, which display a number of substantial differences in comparison to adult cardiomyocytes. Excitation-contraction coupling, a fundamental property of cardiomyocytes, is often described in iPSC-CMs as being more analogous to neonatal than adult cardiomyocytes. With calcium handling linked, directly or indirectly, to almost all other properties of cardiomyocytes, a solid understanding of this process will be crucial to fully realizing the potential of this technology.Here we discuss the implications of differences in excitation-contraction coupling when considering the potential applications of iPSC-CMs in a number of areas as well as detailing the current understanding of this fundamental process in these cells