Cardiac Tissue Engineering: A Pathway for Repair

Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death globally, accounting for 31.5% of deaths worldwide. The widespread (and growing) prevalence of cardiovascular disease and the inadequacy of the adult human heart to regenerate on its own after a major ischemic event calls for the development of tissue regeneration strategies to facilitate and support cardiomyocyte maturation and function in vivo. This chapter explores regenerative therapies of graded levels of complexity with cell transplantation, engineered biomaterials for cardiac differentiation/ maturation, and functional grafts with perfusable vasculature. Further, a few representative engineering models of cardiac fibrosis are discussed, which achieve a degree of functional improvement of the heart after myocardial infarction.