title: Engineering natural heart valves: possibilities and challenges.
abstract: Heart valve replacement is considered to be the most prevalent treatment approach for cardiac valve-related diseases. Among current solutions for heart valve replacement, e.g. mechanical and bioprosthetic valves, the main shortcoming is the lack of growth capability, repair and remodelling of the substitute valve. During the past three decades, tissue engineering-based approaches have shown tremendous potential to overcome these limitations by the development of a biodegradable scaffold, which provides biomechanical and biochemical properties of the native tissue. Among various scaffolds employed for tissue engineering, the decellularized heart valve (DHV) has attracted much attention, due to its native structure as well as comparable haemodynamic characteristics. Although the human DHV has shown optimal properties for valve replacement, the limitation of valve donors in terms of time and size is their main clinical issue. In this regard, xenogenic DHV can be a promising candidate for heart valve replacement. Xenogenic DHVs have similar composition to human valves, which will overcome the need for human DHVs. The main concern regarding xenogeneic DHV replacement is the immunological reaction and calcification following implantation, weak mechanical properties and insufficient recellularization capacity. In this review, we describe the essential steps required to address these impediments through novel engineering approaches. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
authors.affiliation: Department of Stem Cells and Developmental Biology, Cell Science Research Centre, Royan Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Technology, ACECR, Tehran, Iran.|Department of Developmental Biology, University of Science and Culture, ACECR, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Mehrnaz
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Namiri
authors.affiliation: Department of Stem Cells and Developmental Biology, Cell Science Research Centre, Royan Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Technology, ACECR, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Mohammad Kazemi
authors.initials: MK
authors.lastname: Ashtiani
authors.affiliation: Department of Stem Cells and Developmental Biology, Cell Science Research Centre, Royan Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Technology, ACECR, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Omid
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Mashinchian
authors.affiliation: Department of Stem Cells and Developmental Biology, Cell Science Research Centre, Royan Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Technology, ACECR, Tehran, Iran.|Department of Bioengineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, USA.
authors.forename: Mohammad Mahdi
authors.initials: MM
authors.lastname: Hasani-Sadrabadi
authors.affiliation: Division of Cardiovascular Medicine, Department of Medicine, Stanford University School of Medicine, CA, USA.|Department of Nanotechnology and Nanotechnology Research Centre, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Iran.|Cardiovascular Institute, Stanford University School of Medicine, CA, USA.
authors.forename: Morteza
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Mahmoudi
authors.affiliation: Department of Stem Cells and Developmental Biology, Cell Science Research Centre, Royan Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Technology, ACECR, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Nasser
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Aghdami
authors.affiliation: Department of Stem Cells and Developmental Biology, Cell Science Research Centre, Royan Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Technology, ACECR, Tehran, Iran.|Department of Developmental Biology, University of Science and Culture, ACECR, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Hossein
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Baharvand
mesh_terms: D020341:Absorbable Implants; D000818:Animals; D001705:Bioprosthesis; D006349:Heart Valve Diseases / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology / Q000628:therapy*; D006350:Heart Valve Prosthesis; D006801:Humans; D054457:Tissue Scaffolds
keywords: decellularized matrix; heart valve; natural scaffold; surface modification; tissue engineering