Heart valves (HVs) are fluidic control components of the heart that ensure unidirectional
blood flow during the cardiac cycle. However, this description does not adequately describe …

Due to the increasing number of heart valve diseases, there is an urgent clinical need for off-
the-shelf tissue engineered heart valves. While significant progress has been made toward …

This paper reviews reports on three-dimensional mammalian tissue growth in bioreactors
and the corresponding mammalian tissue growth requirements. The needs for nutrient and …

The aortic valve regulates unidirectional flow of oxygenated blood to the myocardium and
arterial system. The natural anatomical geometry and microstructural complexity ensures …

Cardiac valves function in a mechanically complex environment, opening and closing close
to a billion times during the average human lifetime, experiencing transvalvular pressures …

The native human heart valve leaflet contains a layered microstructure comprising a
hierarchical arrangement of collagen, elastin, proteoglycans and various cell types. Here …

Valvular endothelial cells interact with interstitial cells in a complex hemodynamic and
mechanical environment to maintain leaflet tissue integrity. The precise roles of each cell …

As therapeutic strategies to prevent acute rejection progressively improve, transplant
vasculopathy (TV) constitutes the single most important limitation for long-term functioning of …

Understanding the role of mechanical forces on cell behavior is critical for tissue
engineering, regenerative medicine, and disease initiation studies. Current hemodynamic …

Heart disease is a major cause of death in the Western world. In the past three decades
there has been a number of improvements in artificial devices and surgical techniques for …