Recent Progress Toward Clinical Translation of Tissue-Engineered Heart Valves

Surgical replacement remains the primary option to treat the rapidly growing number of patients with severe valvular heart disease. Although current valve replacements-mechanical, bioprosthetic, and cryopreserved homograft valves-enhance survival and quality of life for many patients, the ideal prosthetic heart valve that is abundantly available, immunocompatible, and capable of growth, self-repair, and life-long performance has yet to be developed. These features are essential for pediatric patients with congenital defects, children and young adult patients with rheumatic fever, and active adult patients with valve disease. Heart valve tissue engineering promises to address these needs by providing living valve replacements that function similarly to their native counterparts. This is best evidenced by the long-term clinical success of decellularised pulmonary and aortic homografts, but the supply of homografts cannot meet the demand for replacement valves. A more abundant and consistent source of replacement valves may come from cellularised valves grown in vitro or acellular off-the-shelf biomaterial/tissue constructs that recellularise in situ, but neither tissue engineering approach has yet achieved long-term success in preclinical testing. Beyond the technical challenges, heart valve tissue engineering faces logistical, economic, and regulatory challenges. In this review, we summarise recent progress in heart valve tissue engineering, highlight important outcomes from preclinical and clinical testing, and discuss challenges and future directions toward clinical translation.