Tissue Engineering—Bridging the Gap

Excerpt

Langer and Visconti first suggested the concept of generating new tissues or organs from living cells seeded onto appropriately configured scaffolds in 1993 [1]. As for many other tissues, the potential benefits of tissue engineering were soon recognised by clinicians and researchers seeking new and effective treatments for cardiovascular disease. As this work has advanced, it has brought together a new research community comprising of biologists, engineers, material scientists and clinicians, whose work has progressed from in vitro cell culture studies to in vivo studies in animal models. Sufficient progress has now been made, such that many projects are ready for translation into the clinical arena. These include the development of vascular tissue for use as bypass grafts, heart valves, myocardial patches and, potentially, a whole functioning heart. This issue of the Journal of Cardiovascular Translational Research is focused on cardiovascular tissue engineering with respect to translating advances made in laboratory-based studies into functional tissues with clinical efficacy. …