Special Issue "Epicardial Development and Cardiovascular Disease"

Guest Editor
Prof. Dr. Thomas Brand
National Heart & Lung Institute, Imperial College London, South Kensington Campus, London SW7 2AZ, UK
Website: http://www1.imperial.ac.uk/medicine/people/t.brand/
E-Mail: t.brand@imperial.ac.uk
Interests: heart development; proepicardial development; left-right asymmetry; cardiac pacemaker development; popeye genes

Guest Editor
Dr. Maurice van den Hoff
Academic Medical Center, Dept Anatomy, Embryology & Physiology, Meibergdreef 15, 1105AZ Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Website: http://www.hartfaalcentrum.nl/index.php?main=1&sub=1&line=1002
E-Mail: m.j.vandenhoff@amc.uva.nl
Interests: cardiovascular development; epicardium development; myocardium formation; cell signalling; BMP signalling; molecular biology; transgenic mice; congenital cardiac abnormalities

Dear Colleagues,

The proepicardium is an embryonic structure, which develops at the venous pole and gives rise to the epicardium and cells of the cardiac interstitium (fibroblast and smooth muscle cells). Its contribution to the endothelium is under intense debate and there may be even species-specific differences. The epicardium has an important role later in development as a source of growth signals, which will stimulate the expansion of the ventricular wall in order to provide sufficient cardiac output and to match the demands of the growing embryo. The epicardium has recently also received significant attention because of its involvement in cardiac regeneration, which has been mainly studied in the zebrafish and murine model systems. In the mammalian heart there is strong evidence that the epicardium of the adult heart is a source for cardiac stem cells, possibly involved in wound healing and scar formation in response to injury. Several different model systems have been employed in the past years including cyclostomes, zebrafish, Xenopus, chicken and mice and this special issue of the Journal of Developmental Biology will provide a comprehensive overview of the current standing of this research field. Leading experts have agreed to contribute review articles on this exciting topic. Research papers on epicardial development and the role of the epicardium in cardiac regeneration are welcome contributions to this special issue.

Submission

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. Papers will be published continuously (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are refereed through a peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Journal of Developmental Biology is an international peer-reviewed Open Access quarterly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. For the first couple of issues the Article Processing Charge (APC) will be waived for well-prepared manuscripts. English correction and/or formatting fees of 250 CHF (Swiss Francs) will be charged in certain cases for those articles accepted for publication that require extensive additional formatting and/or English corrections.