Kaiser Nicholas J, Coulombe Kareen L K
Center for Biomedical Engineering, School of Engineering, Brown University, Providence, RI, USA.
Biomed Mater. 2015 May 13;10(3):034003. doi: 10.1088/1748-6041/10/3/034003.
Tissue engineering is well suited for the treatment of cardiac disease due to the limited regenerative capacity of native cardiac tissue and the loss of function associated with endemic cardiac pathologies, such as myocardial infarction and congenital heart defects. However, the physiological complexity of the myocardium imposes extensive requirements on tissue therapies intended for these applications. In recent years, the field of cardiac tissue engineering has been characterized by great innovation and diversity in the fabrication of engineered tissue scaffolds for cardiac repair and regeneration to address these problems. From early approaches that attempted only to deliver cardiac cells in a hydrogel vessel, significant progress has been made in understanding the role of each major component of cardiac living tissue constructs (namely cells, scaffolds, and signaling mechanisms) as they relate to mechanical, biological, and electrical in vivo performance. This improved insight, accompanied by modern material science techniques, allows for the informed development of complex scaffold materials that are optimally designed for cardiac applications. This review provides a background on cardiac physiology as it relates to critical cardiac scaffold characteristics, the degree to which common cardiac scaffold materials fulfill these criteria, and finally an overview of recent in vivo studies that have employed this type of approach.
由于天然心脏组织的再生能力有限以及与地方性心脏疾病（如心肌梗死和先天性心脏缺陷）相关的功能丧失，组织工程非常适合用于治疗心脏疾病。然而，心肌的生理复杂性对用于这些应用的组织疗法提出了广泛要求。近年来，心脏组织工程领域的特点是在制造用于心脏修复和再生的工程组织支架方面有了巨大的创新和多样性，以解决这些问题。从早期仅试图在水凝胶容器中递送心脏细胞的方法开始，在理解心脏活组织构建体的每个主要成分（即细胞、支架和信号传导机制）与体内机械、生物学和电学性能的关系方面已经取得了重大进展。这种更深入的认识，伴随着现代材料科学技术，使得能够明智地开发出针对心脏应用进行优化设计的复杂支架材料。本综述提供了与关键心脏支架特性相关的心脏生理学背景、常见心脏支架材料满足这些标准的程度，以及最后对采用这种方法的近期体内研究的概述。
