Tissue-Engineered Heart Valves: A Review

¹Professor, Department of Cardiac Surgery, Bangladesh Medical University, Dhaka, Bangladesh

²Associate Professor, Department of Cardiac Surgery, Bangladesh Medical University, Dhaka, Bangladesh

³Assistant Professor, Department of Anaesthesia (Cardiac Wing), Bangladesh Medical University, Dhaka, Bangladesh

⁴Professor, Department of Anaesthesia (Cardiac Wing), Bangladesh Medical University, Dhaka, Bangladesh

*Corresponding author: Md. Rezwanul Hoque Bulbul, Department of Cardiac Surgery, Bangladesh Medical University, Shahbag, Dhaka-1000, Bangladesh, Phone: 880-1711560305, E-mail: [email protected]

ORCID ID: 0000-0001-7748-0100

Received Date : October 29, 2025
Published Date : March 23, 2026

Citation: Hoque MR, et al. (2026). Tissue-Engineered Heart Valves: A Review. Cardiac. 6(1):12.

Copyright: Hoque MR, et al. © (2026).

ABSTRACT

Background: Mechanical heart valves (used in patients under 60 years of age) and Bioprosthetic heart valves (usually used in patients 60 years or above) have their own limitations, advantages, and disadvantages. The life-long necessity of using anticoagulants in mechanical valves and the early structural deterioration of bioprosthetic valves within 10-20 years, difficult to procure appropriately sized valves in children, prompted the need to develop a newer kind of valves that are living, can grow, and have the capability to be modulated according to the changing needs. Tissue-engineered valves are probably a solution to these problems. Aim: To construct a tissue-engineered heart valve (TEHV), a scaffold is needed, either a decellularized biological matrix or a nanofiber-made biodegradable material, which acts as a template to support the growth of seeded cells or repopulated cells, and the extracellular matrix. Current status and Future perspectives: Tissue-engineered heart valves have passed the laboratory tests, preclinical tests, and are now being implanted in selected patients with promising results. It is a living valve, and some of the defects that are revealed in the animal and human levels are being solved, and very soon, widespread human use will start. Certainly, it will be a milestone development in the field of heart valve surgery.

Keywords: Tissue-engineered Heart Valves, Artificial Heart Valves