title: Bioengineered living cardiac and venous valve replacements: current status and future prospects.
abstract: Valvular heart disease remains to be a major cause of death worldwide with increasing prevalence, mortality, and morbidity. Current heart valve replacements are associated with several limitations due to their nonviable nature. In this regard, heart valve tissue engineering has shown to represent a promising concept in order to overcome these limitations and replace diseased cardiac valves with living, autologous constructs. These bioengineered valves hold potential for in situ remodeling, growth, and repair throughout the patient's lifetime without the risk of thromboembolic complications and adverse immune responses. For the fabrication of tissue-engineered heart valves, several concepts have been established, the "classical" in vitro tissue engineering approach, the in situ tissue engineering approach, and alternative approaches including three-dimensional printing and electrospinning. Besides first attempts have been conducted in order to produce a tissue-engineered venous valve for the treatment of deep venous valve insufficiency. Here we review basic principals and current scientific status of valvular tissue engineering, including a critical discussion and outlook for the future.
authors.affiliation: Institute for Regenerative Medicine, University of Zurich Center for Therapy Development/Good Manufacturing Practice, Moussonstrasse 13, CH-8044 Zurich, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Debora
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Kehl
authors.affiliation: Institute for Regenerative Medicine, University of Zurich Center for Therapy Development/Good Manufacturing Practice, Moussonstrasse 13, CH-8044 Zurich, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Benedikt
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Weber
authors.affiliation: Institute for Regenerative Medicine, University of Zurich Center for Therapy Development/Good Manufacturing Practice, Moussonstrasse 13, CH-8044 Zurich, Switzerland. Electronic address: simon_philipp.hoerstrup@usz.ch.
authors.forename: Simon Philipp
authors.initials: SP
authors.lastname: Hoerstrup
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D006350:Heart Valve Prosthesis; D006351:Heart Valves; D006801:Humans; D023822:Tissue Engineering / Q000379:methods* / Q000639:trends*; D055422:Venous Valves
keywords: 3D printing; Electrospinning; Heart valve tissue engineering; In situ tissue engineering; In vitro tissue engineering; Venous valves