Abstract:

BACKGROUND: Tissue engineered heart valves might bear promising surgical solutions of valvular heart disease for overcoming the limitations of biological and mechanical heart valve substitutes. Scaffolds play a central role in the tissue engineering. However, researchers often encounter an enormous variety of choices when selecting scaffolds for tissue engineered heart valves.
OBJECTIVE: To highlight the role of extracellular matrix and its interactions with cells in tissue dynamics, and to review the major scaffolding materials which are used widely by describing their merits and disadvantages.
METHODS: An online search of Pubmed database was performed using key words of “heart valves, tissue engineering” in Mesh for articles published between January 2000 and August 2009. A total of 186 literatures were screened out, including 34 reviews and 152 experimental studies. Among them, 39 articles which were related to scaffolding materials of tissue engineered heart valve, published in authorized journal and considered to be a representative, were selected.
RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: Natural scaffolds have inimitable biomimicry because of their good biocompatibility and three-dimensional microstructure compared to other materials. Synthetic degradable polymer materials have attracted the attention of researchers due to their well controllability, absorbability and biomechanical properties. The composite scaffold materials of synthetic polymer and natural materials are a potential alternative and has a promising application prospect.