New effective treatments for heart disease are based on a thorough understanding of cellular function and heart response to environmental stresses. It is therefore not surprising that the field of experimental heart disease has experienced a phase of rapid rapid growth over the last decade.

New knowledge has gained so fast that textbooks for heart disease or textbooks in cardiovascular physiology are often compressed to keep pace with the most important conceptual developments. See the tremendous increase in knowledge about signaling pathways for heart growth, transient metabolic regulation of the heart, hormonal signals, and complex heart responses to ischemia, blood transfusion, or ischemic preconditions.

This book aims at bridging the gap between original literature and school textbooks. It brings together listeners from different backgrounds who share their experiences in the biology of myocardial ischemia. Each chapter is a self-sustaining mini-review, but it will soon become clear to the reader that there is also a common thread: molecular and cellular cardiology has never been more exciting, but no more exciting times are yet to come.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS editors have been approved - generously released by Sanofi-Aventis Hellas. - The creative team of Akon provided technical assistance in the preparation of manuscripts.

- We thank Dr. Bernard Swingdao for all his scientific support..