Over the past few decades, the human life span has been extended and is expected to increase further in the next few years with a supplementary prolongation of life expectancy. Consequently, the prevalence of age-related conditions, such as cardiovascular disease (CVD), despite recent developments in cardiovascular research which have led to noteworthy steps in elucidating, preventing, and treating cardiovascular diseases, is continuously increasing, thus representing the leading cause for morbidity and mortality in high income countries.

Recent breakthroughs in stem cell biology, molecular genetic screening, proteomics, and metabolomics are changing the way investigators identify novel signal transduction pathways and functional cross-talks, making the development of new therapeutic strategies and protocols possible.

New insights into the mechanisms involved in cardiac myocyte turnover, hypertrophy, aging, and dysfunction have important therapeutic implications for an increasing population of patients with end-stage heart failure.

New technological tools are gaining more and more attractiveness due to their appraised clinical efficacy.

Improvements in the pharmacology field, thanks to the discovery of new molecules thumping selective targets, have led to a better-quality and personalized treatment of many cardiovascular diseases.

On the other hand, major efforts have been focused on bridging the gap between basic and translational research to clinical and outcome research, which aim to exploit the ever expanding set of information on prevalence, incidence, impact, and management of clinically relevant conditions in selected or real-world patients.

Given these premises, this special issue aims to integrate expertise from different disciplines toward the same objective inviting investigators to contribute original research articles and review articles able to stimulate the ongoing efforts to better understand the mechanism underlying cardiovascular disease as well as the development of therapeutic strategies to prevent or treat cardiovascular disease.

It is our hope that this special issue will serve as a resource for biomedical investigators at all levels, both those engaged in basic research and those involved in clinical practice in order to provide new insights into the way to future clinical translation.

This special issue of the journal will address some of these outstanding issues.

Potential topics include, but are not limited to:

• Definition of pathophysiologic pathways and interplays involved in cardiovascular disease
• Basic research
• Stem cell therapy
• Bioengineering approaches and bioartificial organs to assist regeneration in mammal tissues and organs
• Translation from " bench to bedside"
• Clinical research
• Outcome research
• Novel tools for the treatment of cardiovascular disease
• Medical and ethical issues concerning cardiovascular disease and therapy