Tissue Engineering Approaches for Building Cardiac Tissue

Abstract

Following a myocardial infarction, the nutrient deprived areas of the heart become ischemic scar tissue. Moreover, the heart can deteriorate further over time, eventually leading to heart failure. The need for strategies for repair/regeneration of heart tissue is undisputed, and many interdisciplinary teams of researchers have examined the roles of signals found in the biochemical, material, mechanical, and electrical niche of the heart in order to direct cardiac cell fate from stem cells and/or develop strategies for the repair and/or replacement of the damaged heart tissue. This chapter will explore the diversity of techniques recently used for: deriving cardiac cells from pluripotent cell sources, organizing and building cardiomyocyte tissue, examining the long-term cell/tissue engraftment, and correlating improvements in cardiac tissue function.

Keywords: Cardiac tissue engineering, Cardiomyocytes, Cardiovascular repair, Cell patterning, Stem cell differentiation.

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