title: [Cardiac engineered valves: state of the art].
abstract: Engineered heart valves promise to be the ideal heart valve replacement: they have the potential to grow and repair within the host, to minimize inflammatory and immunological responses and to limit thromboembolism. In particular, pediatric patients with congenital defects would greatly benefit from growing replacement materials by reducing the need for surgical reinterventions due to the lack of prosthetic material growth. In fact, viable cells included in engineered heart valves can theoretically adapt to a growing and changing environment exactly as a native biological structure. Engineered heart valves represent thus a novel experimental approach to create autologous, living replacements with the potential to grow, regenerate, and remodel. The aim of this paper is to present a review concerning the research efforts to create a viable engineered heart valve.
authors.affiliation: U.O. di Cardiochirurgia, Centro Cardilogico Monzino IRCCS, Università degli Studi, Milano. luca.dainese@ccfm.it
authors.forename: Luca
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Dainese
authors.forename: Fabio
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Barili
authors.forename: Daniele
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Andreini
authors.forename: Anna
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Guarino
authors.forename: Barbara
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Micheli
authors.forename: Cristina Anna
authors.initials: CA
authors.lastname: Borsetti
authors.forename: GianLuca
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Polvani
authors.forename: Alessandro
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Parolari
authors.forename: Melissa
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Fusari
authors.forename: Paolo
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Biglioli
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001672:Biocompatible Materials; D006350:Heart Valve Prosthesis; D006801:Humans; D023822:Tissue Engineering
chemical_list: D001672:Biocompatible Materials