Myocardial Tissue Engineering [ Active ]

Preface

Cardiovascular disease is the leading major cause of morbidity and mortality in the world and a social problem regarding health, especially in our aging society, regardless of the sustained efforts of various investigators and doctors. Tissue engineering and regenerative medicine are highly anticipated to resolve these difficult problems, and have been progressing rapidly. In fact, various regenerative clinical therapies have been performed for treating cardiovascular disease. Differentiated cells derived from embryonic stem (ES) and induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells have been already applied clinically in the field of ophthalmology, and human cardiomyocytes differentiated from those stem cells have also been used in large animal models for aiming the clinical usage. Spectacular progresses in the fields are reported on a daily basis. This broadly summarizes and discusses the developing tissue engineering and regenerative medicine. The future challenges of tissue engineering and regenerative medicine have also been discussed. We believe that the incessant efforts and collaborations of various investigators/doctors with various backgrounds, basic scientists, clinicians, engineers, etc. will realize the "bioengineered heart" and cure cardiovascular disease of many patients in future.