Skip to main content

Heart Valve Bioengineering

  • Living reference work entry
  • First Online:
Organ Tissue Engineering

Abstract

Valve degeneration and dysfunction affect an increasing number of aging patients in the developed countries, while congenital and rheumatic diseases affect younger patients worldwide. When possible, valvular disease is treated by valve repair; however, severe pathologies require a surgical or transcatheter valve replacement procedure. Nowadays, clinical-grade valvular prostheses consist of mechanical or bioprosthetic valves, which still present serious disadvantages, such as thrombogenicity and limited durability.

In this chapter, we describe how tissue-engineered heart valves (TEHVs) can solve the shortcomings of current clinically adopted valvular replacements by providing a prosthesis with potential regenerative and remodeling capabilities and, hence, a lifelong durability. Different tissue engineering (TE) approaches, such as in vitro, in vivo, and in situ are described, with particular focus on preclinical and clinical validation of TEHVs. In this context, we will also discuss in silico, in vitro, and in vivo models that can be used to manufacture TEHVs, test their functionality, and predict their remodeling before moving to preclinical and clinical settings. Finally, we address the scientific, regulatory, and clinical challenges that pace the safe clinical translation of TEHVs.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

Download references

Acknowledgments

S.P. Hoerstrup is a shareholder at Xeltis BV and LifeMatrix AG. M.Y. Emmert is a shareholder at LifeMatrix AG. The other authors have nothing to disclose.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Simon P. Hoerstrup .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2020 Springer Nature Switzerland AG

About this entry

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this entry

Fioretta, E.S., Motta, S.E., Gähwiler, E.K.N., Poulis, N., Emmert, M.Y., Hoerstrup, S.P. (2020). Heart Valve Bioengineering. In: Eberli, D., Lee, S.J., Traweger, A. (eds) Organ Tissue Engineering. Reference Series in Biomedical Engineering(). Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-18512-1_4-1

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-18512-1_4-1

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-18512-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-18512-1

  • eBook Packages: Springer Reference EngineeringReference Module Computer Science and Engineering

Publish with us

Policies and ethics