Recent advances in stem cell biology and tissue engineering have laid the groundwork for building complex tissues in a dish. We propose that these technologies are ready for a new challenge: recapitulating cardiac morphogenesis in vitro. In development, the heart transforms from a simple linear tube to a four-chambered organ through a complex process called looping. Here, we re-examine heart tube looping through the lens of an engineer and argue that the linear heart tube is an advantageous starting point for tissue engineering. We summarize the structures, signaling pathways, and stresses in the looping heart, and evaluate approaches that could be used to build a linear heart tube and guide it through the process of looping.

干细胞生物学和组织工程的最新进展为在培养皿中构建复杂组织奠定了基础。我们建议这些技术已准备好迎接新的挑战：体外重现心脏形态发生。在发育过程中，心脏通过称为循环的复杂过程从简单的线性管转变为四腔器官。在这里，我们通过工程师的镜头重新检查心管循环，并认为线性心管是组织工程的有利起点。我们总结了循环心脏中的结构、信号通路和应力，并评估了可用于构建线性心管并引导其完成循环过程的方法。