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Abstract

Coronary heart disease (CHD) is the leading cause of morbidity and death in the United States with a total economic burden due to CHD on health care system has reached an estimated $142 billion in 2006.1 Despite substantial advances in treatment like drug therapy and revascularization strategies, ischemic cardiac injury and the ventricular dysfunction remain major source of concern throughout the world. The endogenous regenerative capacity of the heart appears inadequate to repair injured myocardium as most cardiomyocytes are terminally differentiated,2 leading to the cumulative loss of cardiomyocytes over the lifetime of a patient.