Heart failure remains the leading cause of death worldwide. Currently there are no therapies that can effectively prevent or reverse the cardiac injury and negative remodeling following a myocardial infarction. Since the heart has limited capacity to regenerate itself, there has been significant efforts to develop new therapies that could protect, repair and regenerate the myocardium. Modifications of physical, chemical and biological environment surrounding myocardium is the most desirable goal to save or restore cardiac tissue through increased angiogenesis. The field of tissue engineering utilizes different strategies that combine biomaterials, stem cells and nanovesicles based approaches to repair and regenerate the heart using physical, chemical and cellular signals. Therefore, optimal combination of cells, materials, small molecules, and extracellular vesicles are critical for the success of cardiac regenerative therapies. Although there has been some success in achieving ideal combinations, however, there is still considerable scope for future developments of biomaterials, stem cells and nanovesicles based strategies.
The outcome of small as well as large animal-based studies in the area of cardiac tissue engineering has shown significant promise. However, there is still a lot of work needs to be done to translate these findings into clinical treatments. The goal of this focused issue is to bring together state-of-the-art original research articles and review articles from experts in the field of biomaterials, nanovesicles and regenerative medicine, with special focus on translational aspects of biomaterials and nanovesicles based approaches. Our hope is that in future readers would benefit from the articles in this special issue to come up with novel tissue engineering based regenerative therapies for cardiac patients.
This issue will cover original articles and review articles. It is aimed at:
1) Defining accurate methods to assemble different scaffold materials and nanovesicles or chemical compounds.
2) Better understanding the relationship among the amount of released nanovesicles or chemical compounds from the scaffold, the magnitude of the post-ischemic myocardial response, and the onset of heart failure.
3) Investigating the impact of conventional drugs and co-morbidities on the myocardial response to engineered tissue.
This focused issue will also focus on the novel approaches to promote successful cardio-protection and myocardial repair through modulation of the immune system.
Heart failure remains the leading cause of death worldwide. Currently there are no therapies that can effectively prevent or reverse the cardiac injury and negative remodeling following a myocardial infarction. Since the heart has limited capacity to regenerate itself, there has been significant efforts to develop new therapies that could protect, repair and regenerate the myocardium. Modifications of physical, chemical and biological environment surrounding myocardium is the most desirable goal to save or restore cardiac tissue through increased angiogenesis. The field of tissue engineering utilizes different strategies that combine biomaterials, stem cells and nanovesicles based approaches to repair and regenerate the heart using physical, chemical and cellular signals. Therefore, optimal combination of cells, materials, small molecules, and extracellular vesicles are critical for the success of cardiac regenerative therapies. Although there has been some success in achieving ideal combinations, however, there is still considerable scope for future developments of biomaterials, stem cells and nanovesicles based strategies.
The outcome of small as well as large animal-based studies in the area of cardiac tissue engineering has shown significant promise. However, there is still a lot of work needs to be done to translate these findings into clinical treatments. The goal of this focused issue is to bring together state-of-the-art original research articles and review articles from experts in the field of biomaterials, nanovesicles and regenerative medicine, with special focus on translational aspects of biomaterials and nanovesicles based approaches. Our hope is that in future readers would benefit from the articles in this special issue to come up with novel tissue engineering based regenerative therapies for cardiac patients.
This issue will cover original articles and review articles. It is aimed at:
1) Defining accurate methods to assemble different scaffold materials and nanovesicles or chemical compounds.
2) Better understanding the relationship among the amount of released nanovesicles or chemical compounds from the scaffold, the magnitude of the post-ischemic myocardial response, and the onset of heart failure.
3) Investigating the impact of conventional drugs and co-morbidities on the myocardial response to engineered tissue.
This focused issue will also focus on the novel approaches to promote successful cardio-protection and myocardial repair through modulation of the immune system.
