ABSTRACT
Cardiovascular diseases account for 12 million deaths annually worldwide. Myocardial infarction (MI) continues to be a signicant problem in industrialized countries and is becoming an increasingly signicant problem in developing countries. MI is one of the leading causes of morbidity and mortality in the United States. Approximately 1.3 million clinical cases of nonfatal MI-an annual incidence rate of approximately 600 cases per 100,000 people-have been reported per year (Fenton 2007). The rapid development of myocardial necrosis, due to a critical imbalance between oxygen supply and the demand of the myocardium, is one of the pathological factors leading to MI. An MI potentially results from plaque rupture with thrombus formation in a coronary artery, resulting in an acute reduction of blood supply to a portion of the myocardium (Alpert et al. 2000). Approximately
CONTENTS
16.1 Introduction ................................................................................................345 16.1.1 Physiology and Pathology ............................................................346 16.1.2 Clinical Treatments ........................................................................346
16.2 Cardiac Tissue Engineering .....................................................................347 16.2.1 Cell Therapy ...................................................................................347 16.2.2 Gene and Protein Therapy ............................................................350 16.2.3 Biomaterials .................................................................................... 351
16.3 Functional Biomaterial Approaches ........................................................ 352 16.3.1 In Vitro Approach ..........................................................................353 16.3.2 Ex Vivo Approach ..........................................................................354 16.3.3 In Situ Approach ............................................................................ 355
16.4 Summary and Future Directions ............................................................ 356 Acknowledgments .............................................................................................. 358 References ............................................................................................................. 358
500,000-700,000 deaths are caused by ischemic heart disease annually in the United States.
