Volume 30, Number 5, 716-723, DOI: 10.1007/s00246-009-9405-6Open Access

Cardiac Tissue Engineering: Implications for Pediatric Heart Surgery

Wolfram-Hubertus Zimmermann and Robert Cesnjevar

From the issue entitled "2008 Riley Heart Center Symposium on Cardiac Development: Growth and Morphogenesis of the Ventricular Wall"

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Abstract

Children with severe congenital malformations, such as single-ventricle anomalies, have a daunting prognosis. Heart transplantation would be a therapeutic option but is restricted due to a lack of suitable donor organs and, even in case of successful heart transplantation, lifelong immune suppression would frequently be associated with a number of serious side effects. As an alternative to heart transplantation and classical cardiac reconstructive surgery, tissue-engineered myocardium might become available to augment hypomorphic hearts and/or provide new muscle material for complex myocardial reconstruction. These potential applications of tissue engineered myocardium will, however, impose major challenges to cardiac tissue engineers as well as heart surgeons. This review will provide an overview of available cardiac tissue-engineering technologies, discuss limitations, and speculate on a potential application of tissue-engineered heart muscle in pediatric heart surgery.

Keywords  Congenital heart disease - Tissue engineering - Myocardial repair - Regeneration - Stem cells

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