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Emerging technologies for cardiac tissue engineering and artificial hearts
Lingyu Sun1, Yu Wang1, Dongyu Xu1
1Department of Rheumatology and Immunology Institute of Translational Medicine Nanjing Drum Tower Hospital School of Biological Science and Medical Engineering Southeast University Nanjing China.
Insights
Tissue engineering offers promising alternatives to heart transplantation for cardiovascular disease patients. This review explores advanced biomaterials and fabrication methods for cardiac tissue regeneration and artificial hearts.
Area of Science:
- Biomedical Engineering
- Regenerative Medicine
- Material Science
Background:
- Cardiovascular diseases pose a significant global health burden due to high morbidity and mortality.
- Current treatments like heart transplantation face limitations, including donor scarcity and immune rejection.
- Developing alternative strategies for cardiac tissue repair and regeneration is crucial.
Purpose of the Study:
- To review recent advancements in cardiac tissue engineering and artificial heart development.
- To discuss critical components and fabrication methods for cardiac tissue engineering scaffolds.
- To explore the biomedical challenges and future directions in the field.
Main Methods:
- Review of current literature on cardiac tissue engineering and artificial hearts.
- Analysis of fabrication techniques for creating biomimetic scaffolds with micro/nanostructure control.
- Discussion of scaffold applications in cardiac tissue repair and regeneration.
Main Results:
- Tissue engineering enables the construction of biomimetic living constructs for cardiac repair.
- Advanced fabrication methods allow for the design of scaffolds with tailored micro/nanostructures.
- Bioinspired scaffolds show potential in promoting cardiac tissue function and regeneration.
Conclusions:
- Cardiac tissue engineering presents a viable alternative to traditional heart transplantation.
- Further research into scaffold design, biomaterials, and fabrication is needed to overcome current challenges.
- The field holds significant promise for improving outcomes for patients with heart disease.
Abstract:
Heart diseases, especially cardiovascular diseases, have brought heavy burden on society for their high morbidity and mortality. In clinical, heart transplantation is recognized as an effective strategy to rescue the lives of patients, while it may suffer from lack of donors and possible immune responses. In view of this, tremendous efforts have been devoted to developing alternative strategies to recover the function and promote the regeneration of cardiac tissues. As an emerging field blending cell biology and material science, tissue engineering technique allows the construction of biomimetic living complexes as organ substitutes for heart repair. In this review, we will present the recent progress in cardiac tissue engineering and artificial hearts. After introducing the critical elements in cardiac tissue engineering, we will present advanced fabrication methods to achieve scaffolds with desired micro/nanostructure design as well as the applications of these bioinspired scaffolds. We will also discuss the current dilemma and possible development direction from a biomedical perspective.
