Biomaterials in myocardial tissue engineering |
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| Authors: | Lewis A. Reis Loraine L. Y. Chiu Nicole Feric Lara Fu Milica Radisic |
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| Affiliation: | 1. Institute of Biomaterials and Biomedical Engineering, University of Toronto, ON, Canada;2. Department of Chemical Engineering and Applied Chemistry, University of Toronto, ON, Canada |
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| Abstract: | Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death in the developed world, and as such there is a pressing need for treatment options. Cardiac tissue engineering emerged from the need to develop alternative sources and methods of replacing tissue damaged by cardiovascular diseases, as the ultimate treatment option for many who suffer from end‐stage heart failure is a heart transplant. In this review we focus on biomaterial approaches to augmenting injured or impaired myocardium, with specific emphasis on: the design criteria for these biomaterials; the types of scaffolds – composed of natural or synthetic biomaterials or decellularized extracellular matrix – that have been used to develop cardiac patches and tissue models; methods to vascularize scaffolds and engineered tissue; and finally, injectable biomaterials (hydrogels) designed for endogenous repair, exogenous repair or as bulking agents to maintain ventricular geometry post‐infarct. The challenges facing the field and obstacles that must be overcome to develop truly clinically viable cardiac therapies are also discussed. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. |
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| Keywords: | cardiac tissue engineering biomaterials cardiac scaffolds injectable hydrogels cardiac tissue models cardiac regeneration |
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