Cell Sheet-Based Cardiac Tissue Engineering

Tissue engineering is indispensable for the advancement of regenerative medicine and the development of tissue models. Cell sheet-based method is one the promising strategies for cardiac tissue engineering. To date, cell sheet transplantation using wide variety of cells has been performed for the treatment of various heart diseases. These cell sheet transplantations have shown to ameliorate cardiac dysfunction and improve symptoms of heart failure. Recent progress of the technologies on the layering of cardiac cell sheets accompanied with vascularization and the large scale cultivation system of embryonic stem cell and induced pluripotent stem cell is about to turn the fabrication of thickened human cardiac tissue for transplant and tissue models into reality. Anat Rec, 297:65-72. 2014. (c) 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.