About this Research Topic

Background

Regenerative medicine promises to be the next frontier in cardiovascular surgery. Recent advances have focused on the use of extracellular matrix (ECM) materials for the repair and replacement of cardiovascular structures, including heart valves, regions of the myocardium and blood vessels. These materials are typically derived from animal sources, possess soft tissue viscoelastic properties are de-cellularized and essentially provide a bio-scaffold framework to facilitate de novo tissue growth in vivo.

In this Research Topic of Frontiers in Cardiovascular Medicine, entitled “Extracellular matrix for cardiovascular reconstruction”, Original Research papers, Reviews and Clinical reports on the topic of ECM usage or potential usage in cardiovascular surgery will be considered for manuscript review. Authors contributing either basic science as well as translational studies are encouraged to submit.

Articles that focus on the following sub-topics are of high interest:

• Heart valve repair/replacement using ECM;
• Utility of ECM to engineer cardiovascular tissues in vitro and/or in vivo;
• Decellularization of ECM for cardiovascular applications;
• Reviews on ECM developments;
• Clinical case studies using ECM in cardiovascular surgery; and
• ECM and Stem cells for cardiovascular repair and/or regeneration.

Topic editor Robert G. Matheny is employed by company CorMatrix Inc.. All other topic editors declare no competing interests with regards to the Research Topic subject.

Keywords: ECM, Repair, Regeneration, Cardiovascular, Scaffolds, Society affiliation RT

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.

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