Heart Valve Tissue Engineering Benefits Tissue Engineering

Heart Valve Tissue Engineering Benefits Tissue engineering came about as early as the 1960s with advances in tissue culture technologies to propagate skin cells (Vesley, 2005). It has advanced to other areas of cells through the years, including heart valve tissue engineering. One in eight people aged 75 years and older suffer from a form of valve disease showing an increasing trend with age (Mol, 2005). For adults, the need arises mostly from an aging population. For children, the need arises from birth defects and other illnesses, such as rheumatic fever.

The number of patients that will require heart valve replacement is expected to triple over the next five decades. The main causes of cardiac valve dysfunction are calcification of leaflets, endocarditis, rheumatic fever, myxomatous degeneration or congenital malformations, leading to stenosis or insufficiency in the valve. Rheumatic fever has been the main cause of heart disease in children and young adults, especially in underdeveloped countries. Congenital heart defects also play a role in the causes for pediatric patients.

"Valvular heart disease is still a significant cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide" (Schmidt, 2005). The need for heart valve tissue engineering stems from limitations of conventional surgical approaches and existing prosthetic devices, serious complications associated with transplantation, and critical shortages of available donor tissues (Mendelson, 2006). Even though surgical approaches and outcomes have improved over the last decade, the need has not been eliminated. For children, the performance of surgical corrections for valvular defects is highly variable depending on the child's age (Vesley, 2005).

The allograft valves require the death of other children making them difficult to obtain. Products for adults have slowed the need because of the longevity of the products being able to last up to 20 years before replacement is necessary. The surgical approaches and outcomes have also helped in decreasing future need for adults. Another problem is that conventional devices for children do not grow as the child grows causing a need for future surgeries.

There has been a problem in developing products that grow as the child grows to prevent the increase in future surgical procedures. There is also a need for new approaches for children, but the market is still relatively small causing limitations in developing new products to benefit in the growth of children. Manufactures are reluctant in considering the development of products for children because of the small market available.

"Development of tissue engineering heart valve offers the potential for surgical replacement of diseased aortic valve with a "living valve that resembles the shape and function of the native valve" (Yacoub). This has also relieved the need to take blood thinners and other heart medications the patient would have been required to take for the rest of their lives. For the adult patient, this benefits in increased quality of life in the respects of not having to have continued surgeries and still being able to function on a normal basis.

Children and adult patients with no option for conventional treatment are the ones that will benefit the most. Pediatric patients have the need for growing materials for the repair of congenital heart defects. It is more beneficial for the children to have material that will grow with them as they grow to relieve.