Heart disease, including valve pathologies, is the leading cause of death worldwide. Despite the progress made thanks to improving transplantation techniques, a perfect valve substitute has not yet been developed: once a diseased valve is replaced with current technologies, the newly implanted valve still needs to be changed some time in the future. This situation is particularly dramatic in the case of children and young adults, because of the necessity of valve growth during the patient's life. Our review focuses on the current status of heart valve (HV) therapy and the challenges that must be solved in the development of new approaches based on tissue engineering. Scientists and physicians have proposed tissue-engineered heart valves (TEHVs) as the most promising solution for HV replacement, especially given that they can help to avoid thrombosis, structural deterioration and xenoinfections. Lastly, TEHVs might also serve as a model for studying human valve development and pathologies.

中文翻译：

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心脏瓣膜组织工程：床边离工作台多远？

心脏病，包括瓣膜病变，是全世界的主要死因。尽管通过改进移植技术取得了进展，但尚未开发出完美的瓣膜替代物：一旦用现有技术替换了患病的瓣膜，未来一段时间内仍需要更换新植入的瓣膜。这种情况在儿童和年轻人的情况下尤其严重，因为在患者的一生中瓣膜生长的必要性。我们的综述重点关注心脏瓣膜 (HV) 治疗的现状以及在开发基于组织工程的新方法时必须解决的挑战。科学家和医生提出组织工程心脏瓣膜 (TEHV) 作为 HV 替代最有希望的解决方案，特别是考虑到它们可以帮助避免血栓形成、结构恶化和异种感染。最后，TEHV 也可以作为研究人类瓣膜发育和病理的模型。