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Design Approaches to Myocardial and Vascular Tissue Engineering
Olukemi O Akintewe1, Erin G Roberts2, Nae-Gyune Rim1
1Department of Biomedical Engineering, Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts 02215; email: olukemi@bu.edu , ngrim@bu.edu , fergu@bu.edu.
Annual Review of Biomedical Engineering
|May 5, 2017
Summary
Engineered tissues offer new ways to repair heart damage, but need blood vessels to work. This review explores prevascularization strategies to help engineered cardiac tissues integrate and function after implantation.
Area of Science:
- Biomedical Engineering
- Regenerative Medicine
- Cardiovascular Research
Background:
- Engineered tissues show promise for cardiovascular disease treatment.
- A key challenge is ensuring adequate vascularization for implanted tissues.
- Lack of vascularization hinders the long-term function of engineered cardiac grafts.
Purpose of the Study:
- To review prevascularization strategies for engineered tissues.
- To highlight methods for promoting blood vessel formation in myocardial implants.
- To discuss cross-disciplinary contributions to tissue vascularization.
Main Methods:
- Literature review of prevascularization techniques.
- Focus on strategies for engineered cardiac tissues.
- Inclusion of relevant methods from other tissue engineering fields.
Main Results:
- Several promising prevascularization design approaches exist.
- Techniques for vascularizing other tissues may be applicable to cardiac tissue engineering.
- Interdisciplinary collaboration is crucial for advancing engineered tissue vascularization.
Conclusions:
- Prevascularization is essential for the success of engineered cardiac tissues.
- A multidisciplinary approach involving developmental biology, tissue engineering, and computational modeling is needed.
- Future research should focus on integrating these fields to overcome vascularization challenges.
