Tissue Engineering of the Aortic Heart Valve Fundamentals and Developments

In the last 40 years, the study of aortic heart valve replacements has had its roots in the work of great clinicians, scientists and biomedical engineers who established the techniques for heart valve substitutes. Recently the research on the development of aortic heart valve replacements has shifted toward tissue engineering (TE), a multidisciplinary research that involves biological, biomaterial and bioengineering sciences. This book introduces current valve substitutes and their limitations and the futuristic tissue engineering of aortic heart valves (TEHV). It highlights the substantial achievements that have been accomplished in the last two decades in TEHV research and discusses the much needed exertion in defining the functional requirements of clinical implementation and in developing the means to produce a functional aortic valve.