Tissue engineered tri-leaflet heart valve-preliminary fabrication of biodegradable polymer scaffolds

A tissue engineered tri-leaflet heart valve is currently being developed to overcome the problems that have limited the long-term viability of conventional biological and mechanical replacement valves. The problems that have besieged heart valves e.g. valve durability, thromboembolic complications and obstructed flow regimes, have been attributed to the design as well as the durability and biological incompatibility of materials used in prosthetic valves. However, recent advances in tissue engineering have demonstrated the potential of the technique in the development of customised replacement body parts. The many advantages of a tissue engineered implant include the ability to regenerate body organs and tissues using the patient's own cells. This reduces considerable risks related to immunological complications and pathogen transfer. Furthermore, as the cells in the tissue engineered implant are living, these cells would be able to assimilate and integrate with the surrounding host tissue as well as grow and repair itself. A discussion is given of the development of the tissue engineered valve which entails the following four stages: (1) fabrication of a 3-D heart valve scaffold, (2) seeding of cells onto the scaffold, (3) conditioning the seeded valve scaffolds in a bioreactor and (4) valve implantation.