Strategies for directing cells into building functional hearts and parts

Abstract

The increasing population of patients with heart disease and the limited availability of organs for transplantation have encouraged multiple strategies to fabricate healthy implantable cardiac tissues. One of the main challenges in cardiac tissue engineering is to direct cell behaviors to form functional three-dimensional (3D) biomimetic constructs. This article provides a brief review on various cell sources used in cardiac tissue engineering and highlights the effect of scaffold-based signals such as topographical and biochemical cues and stiffness. Then, conventional and novel micro-engineered bioreactors for the development of functional cardiac tissues will be explained. Bioreactor-based signals including mechanical and electrical cues to control cardiac cell behavior will also be elaborated in detail. Finally, the application of computational fluid dynamics to design suitable bioreactors will be discussed. This review presents the current state-of-the-art, emerging directions and future trends that critically appraise the concepts involved in various approaches to direct cells for building functional hearts and heart parts.

Selection of human induced pluripotent stem cells lines optimization of cardiomyocytes differentiation in an integrated suspension microcarrier bioreactor

“…One of the leading causes of death worldwide has been cardiac-related illnesses, such as myocardial infarction, also known as heart attack [22]. Inability of mature cardiomyocytes (CMs) to regenerate is the main cause leading to heart failure [15,22].…”

“…One of the leading causes of death worldwide has been cardiac-related illnesses, such as myocardial infarction, also known as heart attack [22]. Inability of mature cardiomyocytes (CMs) to regenerate is the main cause leading to heart failure [15,22]. Because of the limited regenerative potential of the cardiac cells, heart transplantation for reconstituting the function of damaged heart is the only effective solution currently available [22].…”

“…Inability of mature cardiomyocytes (CMs) to regenerate is the main cause leading to heart failure [15,22]. Because of the limited regenerative potential of the cardiac cells, heart transplantation for reconstituting the function of damaged heart is the only effective solution currently available [22]. This is, however, severely hindered mainly due to the shortage of donor organs [15,22].…”

“…Because of the limited regenerative potential of the cardiac cells, heart transplantation for reconstituting the function of damaged heart is the only effective solution currently available [22]. This is, however, severely hindered mainly due to the shortage of donor organs [15,22]. To that end, stem cell-derived CMs may serve as a renewable cellular source for repairing the infracted myocardium.…”

Reinforcement of a decellularized extracellular matrix-derived hydrogel using nanofibers for cardiac tissue engineering

“…Today, cardiovascular has a key factor in most of human deaths annually. Given the shortage of organ donors, cardiac tissue engineering has been emerged as a promising approach for cardiac regeneration using biomimetic scaffolds and cardiomyocytes (Jafarkhani et al, 2018;Hu et al, 2019). An interesting method in cardiac tissue engineering is to develop functional biomimetic 3D constructs incorporating biocompatible and biodegradable nanofibers and hydrogels with suitable mechanical strength (Ying et al, 2011).…”