Strategies in cardiac tissue engineering

Richard Tee, Zerina Lokmic, Wayne A. Morrison, Rodney J. Dilley

Research output: Contribution to journalReview ArticleResearchpeer-review

27 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

In heart failure, post-myocardial infarction and some congenital cardiac anomalies, organ transplantation is the only effective cure. Shortage of organ donors and complications of orthotopic heart transplant remain major challenges to the modern field of transplantation. Tissue engineering using cell-based strategies presents itself as a new way of generating functional myocardium. Engineering functional myocardium de novo requires an abundant source of cells that can form cardiomyocytes. These cells may be used with biocompatible scaffold materials to generate a contractile myocardium. Lastly, to sustain the high metabolism of the construct, a functional vasculature needs to be developed with the forming cardiac tissue. This review provides an update on the progress of stem cell research in the context of cardiac tissue development, types of biomaterials used in cardiac tissue engineering (CTE) and currently employed strategies for vascularization in CTE. In addition, a brief overview of strategies utilized in CTE is provided.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)683-693
Number of pages11
JournalANZ Journal of Surgery
Volume80
Issue number10
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Oct 2010
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Heart transplantation
  • Myocardium
  • Review
  • Stem cells
  • Tissue engineering

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