Progress and promise of cell sheet assisted cardiac tissue engineering in regenerative medicine

Abstract

Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) are the most common leading causes of premature deaths in all countries. To control the harmful side effects of CVDs on public health, it is necessary to understand the current and prospective strategies in prevention, management, and monitoring CVDs. In vitro, recapitulating of cardiac complex structure with its various cell types is a challenging topic in tissue engineering. Cardiac tissue engineering (CTE) is a multi-disciplinary strategy that has been considered as a novel alternative approach for cardiac regenerative medicine and replacement therapies. In this review, we overview various cell types and approaches in cardiac regenerative medicine. Then, the applications of cell-sheet-assisted CTE in cardiac diseases were discussed. Finally, we described how this technology can improve cardiac regeneration and function in preclinical and clinical models.

Maturation of human cardiomyocytes derived from induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC-CMs) on polycaprolactone and polyurethane nanofibrous mats

“…The cellular models used so far use immature heart cells with a different morphology and physiology than mature heart cells and, therefore, do not adequately mimic the in vivo conditions of adult cardiac tissue 4 . Currently, scientists are interested in the use of human cardiomyocytes differentiated from induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC-CMs) for in vitro models 4 – 6 .…”