Tissue Engineering Techniques for Induced Pluripotent Stem Cell Derived Three-Dimensional Cardiac Constructs

Area of Science:

• Cardiovascular Physiology
• Developmental Biology
• Biomedical Engineering

Background:

• Human stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes are established models for cardiac physiology research.
• Tissue-engineered human heart constructs are increasingly used for drug screening and disease modeling.
• Cardiac tissue engineering integrates complex engineering and physiological principles, posing accessibility challenges.

Purpose of the Study:

• To provide a comprehensive review of major considerations for developing cardiovascular tissues from stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes.
• To examine recent advancements in cardiac tissue engineering.
• To discuss essential concepts and principles for creating and analyzing 3D cardiac constructs.

Main Methods:

• Review of literature on stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes and cardiac tissue engineering.
• Discussion of various tissue-engineered construct formats.
• Analysis of cardiomyocyte sources, fabrication techniques, and maturation processes for 3D constructs.

Main Results:

• Human induced pluripotent stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes are becoming more cost-effective and routine.
• Three-dimensional (3D) tissue-engineered constructs are replacing 2D monolayer cultures due to better representation of heart geometry.
• Key principles for generating and interpreting data from 3D cardiac tissue models are presented.

Conclusions:

• Advancements in stem cell technology facilitate the routine production of cardiomyocytes for research.
• 3D cardiac tissue engineering offers more physiologically relevant models compared to traditional 2D cultures.
• This review aims to enhance accessibility and understanding of 3D cardiac tissue engineering principles and applications.