The current status of engineering myocardial tissue

Abstract

Myocardial infarction (MI) remains a common fatal disease all over the world. The adult cardiac myocytes regenerative capability is very limited after infarct injury. Heart transplantation would be the best therapeutic option currently but is restricted due to the lack of donor organs and the serious side effects of immune suppression. The emerging of tissue engineering has evolved to provide solutions to tissue repair and replacement. Engineering myocardial tissue is considered to be a new therapeutic approach to repair infarcted myocardium and ameliorate cardiac function after MI. Engineering myocardial tissue is the combination of biodegradable scaffolds with viable cells and has made much progress in the experimental phase. However, the largest challenge of this field is the revascularization of the engineering constructs to provide oxygen and nutrients for cells. This review will give an overview on the current evolution of engineering myocardial tissue and address a new method to improve the vascularization of myocardium tissue in vivo.