Tissue engineering of heart valves is an evolving research field. Driven by the shortcomings
of the heart valve substitutes currently available, such as need for anticoagulation,
susceptibility to infections, inability to grow and autorepair, the multidisciplinary
approach for designing and growing viable heart valves identical to the native heart
valves has begun. The following will give an update of the recent developments, current
limitations and potential future applications of tissue-engineered heart valves.
Tissue Engineering - Heart valves - Scaffold - Autologous cells