Abstract: Cardiovascular diseases are the number one cause of heart failure and death in the world, and the transplantation of the heart is an effective and viable choice for treatment despite presenting many disadvantages (most notably, transplant heart availability). To overcome this problem, cardiac tissue engineering is considered a promising approach by using implantable artificial blood vessels, injectable gels, and cardiac patches (to name a few) made from biodegradable polymers. Biodegradable polymers are classified into two main categories: natural and synthetic polymers. Natural biodegradable polymers have some distinct advantages such as biodegradability, abundant availability, and renewability but have some significant drawbacks such as rapid degradation, insufficient electrical conductivity, immunological reaction, and poor mechanical properties for cardiac tissue engineering. Synthetic biodegradable polymers have some advantages such as strong mechanical properties, controlled structure, great processing flexibility, and usually no immunological concerns; however, they have some drawbacks such as a lack of cell attachment and possible low biocompatibility. Some applications have combined the best of both and exciting new natural/synthetic composites have been utilized. Recently, the use of nanostructured polymers and polymer nanocomposites has revolutionized the field of cardiac tissue engineering due to their enhanced mechanical, electrical, and surface properties promoting tissue growth. In this review, recent research on the use of biodegradable natural/synthetic nanocomposite polymers in cardiac tissue engineering is presented with forward looking thoughts provided for what is needed for the field to mature.

Keywords: biodegradable polymer, tissue engineering, cardiac cell, composite, natural, synthetic


中文翻译：

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心脏组织工程中的可生物降解纳米聚合物：从概念到纳米医学。


摘要：心血管疾病是世界上心力衰竭和死亡的第一大原因，心脏移植是一种有效且可行的治疗选择，尽管存在许多缺点（最显着的是移植心脏的可用性）。为了克服这个问题，心脏组织工程被认为是一种有前途的方法，它使用由可生物降解聚合物制成的植入式人造血管、可注射凝胶和心脏贴片（仅举几例）。可生物降解聚合物分为两大类：天然聚合物和合成聚合物。天然可生物降解聚合物具有一些明显的优点，如生物降解性、丰富的可用性和可再生性，但也有一些明显的缺点，如降解速度快、导电性不足、免疫反应和心脏组织工程的机械性能差。合成的生物可降解聚合物具有机械性能强、结构可控、加工灵活性大、通常不存在免疫学问题等优点；然而，它们有一些缺点，例如缺乏细胞附着和可能的生物相容性低。一些应用结合了两者的优点，并利用了令人兴奋的新型天然/合成复合材料。最近，纳米结构聚合物和聚合物纳米复合材料的使用已经彻底改变了心脏组织工程领域，因为它们增强了机械、电学和表面特性，促进了组织生长。在这篇综述中，介绍了可生物降解的天然/合成纳米复合聚合物在心脏组织工程中的应用的最新研究，并为该领域成熟所需的内容提供了前瞻性的想法。


关键词：生物可降解聚合物，组织工程，心肌细胞，复合材料，天然，合成