title: [Progress in studies of tissue-engineered heart valves].
abstract: Valve replacement represents the most common surgical therapy for valvular heart diseases. However, the long-term results of the valve protheses in clinical use are not satisfying. Recently, with the development of tissue engineering, more and more studies are focusing on creating ideal valve substitutes through seeding autologous cells on biodegradable scaffold. This article describes the definition of valvular tissue engineering, the choice of scaffold biomaterials, the methods of cell culture and seeding, and the evaluation of tissue-engineered heart valves. Furthermore, the problems which should be resolved in the future are also presented in the article.
authors.affiliation: Department of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery, West China Hospital of Sichuan University, Chengdu 610041.
authors.forename: Zhong
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.forename: Yingkang
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Shi
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D021522:Bioartificial Organs; D001672:Biocompatible Materials; D001673:Biodegradation, Environmental; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D006350:Heart Valve Prosthesis; D011108:Polymers; D023822:Tissue Engineering
chemical_list: D001672:Biocompatible Materials; D011108:Polymers