Tissue Engineering to Restore Cardiac Function

1.Introduction The purpose of cardiac surgery is to restore the injured heart to full function.For many congenital cardiac defects,appropriate repair is able to establish nearly normal cardiac function.One example of such repair is closing abnormal holes between cardiac chambers in young children,which usually restores normal func-tion that persists for the lifetime of the child.However,the advent of surgery for ischemic heart disease has resulted in new chal-lenges for cardiac surgeons.Elderly patients with diffuse atherosclerosis(artery hardening)frequently develop obstructions to the arteries supplying blood to the heart muscle,resulting in a heart attack(myocardial infarction).The resulting loss of contrac-tile cardiac cells decreases the functional capacity of the heart.This initial damage is frequently complicated by progressive changes in the heart,leading to thinning of the damaged regions and cardiac chamber dilatation,which ultimately results in the progression of cardiac failure,the most frequent cause of cardiovascular death and disability worldwide.