BACKGROUND:Current cardiac bioprostheses and mechanical valves are shown to have some flaws and shortcomings, and tissue-engineered heart valves which can avoid these problems are becoming an ideal choice for valve replacement.
OBJECTIVE:To explore the experimental progress in the construction of tissue-engineered heart valves.
METHODS:Experimental studies related to tissue-engineered heart valves were retrieved in databases. Three main elements for tissue-engineered heart valves are seed cells, scaffold materials, and cellseeding.
RESULTS AND CONCLUSION:Cardiac valve repair and replacement is the primarily surgical treatment for valvular heart disease. At present, seed cells mainly for construction of tissue-engineered heart valves include vascular endothelial cells, endothelial progenitor cells and bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells. The acellular scaffold has good biomechanical properties and histocompatibility. After cellseeding, a continuous celllayer wil form on the scaffold surface, which makes it possible to construct tissue-engineered heart valves. Tissue-engineered heart valve has a good prospect, but it is stil in the early stage of research and there are stil many problems that need to be solved.