The new era of cardiovascular research: revolutionizing cardiovascular research with 3D models in a dish
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Updated: Jun 30, 2025
Development and Evaluation of 3D-Printed Cardiovascular Phantoms for Interventional Planning and Training
Published on: January 18, 2021
Yuan Yang1, Hao Yang1, Fedir N Kiskin1
1Institute of Neurological and Psychiatric Disorders, Shenzhen Bay Laboratory, Shenzhen, Guangdong Province, China.
Insights
Innovative 3D cardiovascular models using human stem cells offer new ways to study heart disease. These models provide better insights into disease mechanisms and drug responses, overcoming limitations of traditional research methods.
Area of Science:
- Cardiovascular Research
- Regenerative Medicine
- Stem Cell Biology
Background:
- Traditional cardiovascular research relies on patient samples and animal models, which have limitations in studying early disease stages and fully recapitulating human disease phenotypes.
- Existing methods often fail to capture the crucial early stages of cardiovascular diseases due to the impracticality of obtaining primary tissues.
- Transgenic animal models, while informative, frequently do not fully replicate the complex progression of human cardiovascular diseases.
Purpose of the Study:
- To review the generation and application of in vitro three-dimensional (3D) cardiovascular models utilizing human pluripotent stem cells.
- To highlight the potential of these advanced models in studying cardiovascular disease mechanisms, drug responses, and personalized therapies.
- To discuss the challenges and future directions in developing and utilizing 3D cardiovascular models for research and drug development.
Main Methods:
- Review of various approaches for generating 3D cardiovascular models from human pluripotent stem cells.
- Analysis of applications in studying molecular and cellular changes in cardiovascular conditions.
- Evaluation of 3D models as platforms for drug efficacy and safety testing.
Main Results:
- 3D cardiovascular models recreate intricate human heart and vessel structures in vitro.
- These models enable the study of diverse cardiovascular disease stages and drug responses using human-origin systems.
- The review outlines methods for model generation and discusses their utility in disease research and drug discovery.
Conclusions:
- 3D cardiovascular models represent a significant advancement, addressing gaps in current cardiovascular research.
- Overcoming challenges in model structure and function maintenance could revolutionize the field, offering mechanistic insights into human-specific diseases.
- These models hold immense potential for expediting the development of personalized cardiovascular therapies.
Abstract:
Cardiovascular research has heavily relied on studies using patient samples and animal models. However, patient studies often miss the data from the crucial early stage of cardiovascular diseases, as obtaining primary tissues at this stage is impracticable. Transgenic animal models can offer some insights into disease mechanisms, although they usually do not fully recapitulate the phenotype of cardiovascular diseases and their progression. In recent years, a promising breakthrough has emerged in the form of in vitro three-dimensional (3D) cardiovascular models utilizing human pluripotent stem cells. These innovative models recreate the intricate 3D structure of the human heart and vessels within a controlled environment. This advancement is pivotal as it addresses the existing gaps in cardiovascular research, allowing scientists to study different stages of cardiovascular diseases and specific drug responses using human-origin models. In this review, we first outline various approaches employed to generate these models. We then comprehensively discuss their applications in studying cardiovascular diseases by providing insights into molecular and cellular changes associated with cardiovascular conditions. Moreover, we highlight the potential of these 3D models serving as a platform for drug testing to assess drug efficacy and safety. Despite their immense potential, challenges persist, particularly in maintaining the complex structure of 3D heart and vessel models and ensuring their function is comparable to real organs. However, overcoming these challenges could revolutionize cardiovascular research. It has the potential to offer comprehensive mechanistic insights into human-specific disease processes, ultimately expediting the development of personalized therapies.
