ABSTRACT
Owing to limited regenerative capacity of the adult mammalian heart, any signicant myocardial cell loss is mostly irreversible and can lead to progressive loss of ventricular function and eventual heart failure. Tissue-engineered cardiac constructs can be applied to repopulate scar tissue with a new pool of
CONTENTS
Introduction ......................................................................................................... 165 Human Cell Types for Cardiac Regeneration ................................................. 166
Human Embryonic Stem Cells (hESCs) ...................................................... 166 Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells (iPS Cells) ................................................ 169 Bone Marrow Stem Cells ............................................................................... 169 Resident Cardiac Stem Cells ......................................................................... 171 Adult Skeletal Muscle Stem Cells ................................................................ 171
Biomaterial Strategies for Cell Delivery into the Heart ................................. 172 Polymeric Porous Scaffolds .......................................................................... 173 Hydrogels ........................................................................................................ 174
Non-Injectable Hydrogels ........................................................................ 174 Injectable Hydrogels ................................................................................. 174
Biomaterial-“Free” Tissue Engineering ....................................................... 175 Cell Aggregation ........................................................................................ 175 Cell Sheets ................................................................................................... 175
Decellularized Matrix .................................................................................... 176 Protein-Engineered Biomaterials ................................................................. 177
Vascularization Strategies in Tissue Engineering ........................................... 178 In-vitro Multicellular Culturing Strategy ................................................... 178 In-vivo Prevascularization Protocols ........................................................... 179 GF-Induced Vascularization ......................................................................... 179
Conclusions .......................................................................................................... 180 References ............................................................................................................. 180
contractile cells, restoring function to the failing heart. Appropriate selection of cells and biomaterials is the key factor in the construction of viable and clinically relevant engineered tissue for myocardial regeneration. Various stem cell types have been proposed for use in treatment of injured heart tissue. However, the optimal cell type has yet to be established.
