About this Research Topic

Background

In cardiovascular diseases, constructing blood vessels or heart tissue in vitro to repair or replace defective parts is one of the strategies for treating the disease. The vascular and cardiac tissue construction can be traced back to early and middle 20th century, respectively. People are still actively exploring after a century. The development of some cutting-edge technologies also provides new ideas. For example, iPSC derived organoid and organ-on-a-chip.

In the field of biomedicine, the discovery of iPS cells and the construction of organoids have significantly changed the basic biological unit of tissue construction. By simulating the differentiation conditions of vascular or myocardial lineage cells in vivo, iPS can be induced to different developmental stages of cardiovascular system ex vivo. Organoid, the mini-organ cultured in three-dimensional condition, has achieved a remarkable breakthrough in structure and function compared to the conventional monolayer (2D) cell. At present, the organoid technology by simulating embryonic development has been applied to many systems and organs, but compared with the small intestine organoids first discovered in 2009, vascular organoids (2019) and cardiac organoids (2021) lag behind other systems. In engineering, innovations in materials science, bio-design and manufacturing have advanced the field. Although some cells can spontaneously aggregate into clumps, the construction of complex structure of blood vessels and heart tissue requires biomaterials as scaffolds to build more ordered arrangements. At the same time, the crosstalk between materials and cells has attracted extensive attention of researchers. If cells, organoids, and materials are compared to the "Lego pieces" that construct tissues, bio-design and manufacturing strategies are "guidelines and implementation" for building the "Lego pieces" into "finished products", such as microfluidic devices, organ-on-a-chip, 3D printing, bio assembling etc.

This Research Topic is to create a forum to introduce the latest bio-engineering application in constructing the vascular or cardiac tissue and organoids. The design, manufacturing, stimulation, monitoring and repairing assessment are encouraged to be highlighted. We welcome submissions on the following topics, but are not limited to:

•Studies on the biology of blood vessels or cardiac tissue with bio-engineering strategies
•New construction of tissue engineered blood vessels, cardiac spheres, cardiac assemblies or engineering heart tissue (EHT)
•Bio-engineering construction of the blood vessel organoid, cardiac organoid, or cardiovascular interconnected organoid
•Biomechanical, bioelectric or other stimulation on the vascular or cardiac tissue
•Strategies to achieve structural and functional maturation of cardiac tissues
•Creation of complex models of cardiac or vascular disease pathologies
•Toxicity assessment or therapeutic application of bio-engineered vascular or cardiac tissue

Keywords: Cardiac Function, Vessel, Heart, Bioengineering, Tissue engineering, Organoid, Biomaterials, Manufacturing

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