Pre-Vascularization Approaches for Heart Tissue Engineering Publisher



Kiaie N¹ ; Gorabi AM¹ ; Ahmadi Tafti SH¹ ; Rabbani S¹ Show Affiliations
Source: Regenerative Engineering and Translational Medicine Published:2021

Abstract

Abstract: Cardiovascular diseases are a leading cause of death and disability worldwide. Heart tissue engineering is a promising treatment for heart failure via developing heart-like biological substitutes. Providing cells’ metabolic needs, such as oxygen and nutrients, in such constructs is one of the main challenges in the success of heart tissue engineering. Then, the importance of pre-vascularization and angiogenesis processes within the engineered cardiac constructs has become clear. This paper reviews different in vitro and in situ approaches for pre-vascularization of heart tissue–engineered constructs. Lay Summary: A new approach for treating heart diseases is replacing the damaged area of the heart tissue with specific heart-like cunstucts loaded with cells. Since the cells need oxygen and food to survive into these constructs, blood perfusion of the construct is a must. Here, mehtods of creating tiny vessels into the heart-like constructs to keep the loaded cells alive and functional are disscussed. © 2020, The Regenerative Engineering Society.