Editorial on the Research TopicConstructing the vascular or cardiac tissue and organoids: the combination of biomedicine and engineering
Cardiovascular diseases (CVD) are the most prevalent noncommunicable conditions and remain the leading cause of death worldwide (1, 2). Despite pharmacotherapy being the first-line treatment (3), surgical repair or replacement is recognized as an indispensable therapy for patients with severe CVD. Due to the shortage of donors and immune responses, bioengineered vascular tissue and cardiac tissue are promising strategies to solve these problems (4, 5).
Tissue engineering utilizes the principles of engineering and life sciences to the generation of biological substitutes (6). Its key elements consist of cell sources, scaffolds, biochemical cues, and fabrication techniques (7). With cutting-edge technology in biomedicine and engineering, such as organoids (8), microfludics (9), and organ-on-a-chip (10), scientists are attempting to biofabricate functional and physiologically-relevant tissues, and even organs.
Based on this topic, the compilation includes three review articles and one original research article, exploring the progress in bioengineered vascular tissue and bioengineered cardiac tissue.
Bioengineered vascular tissue
Traditional vascular grafts include synthetic conduits, xenografts of animal origin, cadaveric allografts, and autografts from patients' own bodies. They have limited supplies and frequent complications due to mechanical stress, inflammatory responses, and inconsistent remodeling. In comparison, bioengineered vascular tissue has the potential to overcome the issues mentioned above, be remodeled by the host into native tissue, and even grow with young patients (11).
The review by Leal et al. encompasses the development, manufacturing techniques, fabricating materials, in vivo animal studies, and clinical trials of small-caliber vascular grafts. From their perspective of cardiac surgeons, the cell-free scaffold-based small-diameter TEVG made from biocompatible polymers would meet the significant clinical demand. A variety of materials' unique features and properties are classified, and a combination of these polymers, as well as scaffold modifications with biomolecules and functional cells, are suggested. This might contribute to creating ideal and practical small-caliber vascular grafts.
Campanile et al. summarize the niche structure, function, and in vitro model of the bone marrow vasculature, and compare cellular mobilization and homing in the Bone Marrow via its vasculature in both cardiovascular disease and cancer. The researchers propose that a more efficient in vitro model should incorporate a monolayer of endothelial cells within a fluid flow environment, along with perivascular cells, of human origin and derived from bone marrow.
Bioengineered cardiac tissue
Cardiac tissue engineering has been a major focus of the tissue engineering field. Since the adult heart lacks the ability to generate, implantation of cells and bioengineered cardiac patches is employed to repair the damaged myocardium (12). Progress in fabrication techniques, tissue maturation, vascularization and perfusion, and high-throughput platforms will propel bioengineered cardiac tissue toward true clinical and industrial application (13).
Birla summarizes the advancements in ventricle tissue engineering and identifies four main biofabrication strategies for bioengineering ventricles: bioprinting, pull-spinning, utilizing balloon catheters, and utilizing custom molds. In addition to fabrication technology, further progress in biomaterials, cell sourcing, and bioreactor technology would expedite the advancement of this field and bridge the functional gap between bioengineered and human ventricles.
Reyat et al. have developed a method to create vascularized and chamber-specific cardiac microtissues by combining atrial or ventricular cardiomyocytes from hiPSC with vascular sprouts from human blood vessel organoids. The gene expression signatures, architectural structure, and electrophysiological properties of the microtissues are comparable to those of in vivo-derived cardiac tissues. Pro-fibrotic stimulation recapitulated the features of cardiac fibrosis. However, the phenotype can be reversed by the receptor inhibitor, indicating the potential of cardiac microtissues in disease modelling and pharmacological screening.
Conclusion
These articles and reviews on the topic show that it is very promising to treat cardiovascular disease with bioengineered vascular or cardiac tissues and organoids. The advancements in both biomedicine and engineering, as well as their further collaboration, would lead to improved treatments for cardiovascular disease.
Statements
Author contributions
DS: Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing. RK: Writing – review & editing. PS: Writing – review & editing. PC: Writing – review & editing. YF: Writing – review & editing.
Acknowledgments
We acknowledge the co-authors of this collection for their intellectual contribution.
Conflict of interest
The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.
The author(s) declared that they were an editorial board member of Frontiers, at the time of submission. This had no impact on the peer review process and the final decision.
Publisher’s note
All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article, or claim that may be made by its manufacturer, is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.
References
1.
Global Cardiovascular Risk Consortium. Global effect of modifiable risk factors on cardiovascular disease and mortality. N Engl J Med. (2023) 389:1273–85. 10.1056/NEJMoa2206916
2.
CosselmanKENavas-AcienAKaufmanJD. Environmental factors in cardiovascular disease. Nat Rev Cardiol. (2015) 12:627–42. 10.1038/nrcardio.2015.152
3.
TomaniakMKatagiriYModoloRde SilvaRKhamisRYBourantasCVet alVulnerable plaques and patients: state-of-the-art. Eur Heart J. (2020) 41:2997–3004. 10.1093/eurheartj/ehaa227
4.
O’ConnorCBradyEZhengYMooreEStevensKR. Engineering the multiscale complexity of vascular networks. Nat Rev Mater. 7:702–16. 10.1038/s41578-022-00447-8
5.
YadidMOvedHSilbermanEDvirT. Bioengineering approaches to treat the failing heart: from cell biology to 3D printing. Nat Rev Cardiol. (2022) 19:83–99. 10.1038/s41569-021-00603-7
6.
LangerRVacantiJP. Tissue engineering. Science. (1993) 260:920–6. 10.1126/science.8493529
7.
SunLWangYXuDZhaoY. Emerging technologies for cardiac tissue engineering and artificial hearts. Smart Med. (2023) 2:e20220040. 10.1002/SMMD.20220040
8.
LancasterMAKnoblichJA. Organogenesis in a dish: modeling development and disease using organoid technologies. Science. (2014) 345:1247125. 10.1126/science.1247125
9.
ZhengWJiangX. Synthesizing living tissues with microfluidics. Acc Chem Res. (2018) 51:3166–73. 10.1021/acs.accounts.8b00417
10.
ZhaoYWangEYLaiFBLCheungKRadisicM. Organs-on-a-chip: a union of tissue engineering and microfabrication. Trends Biotechnol. (2023) 41:410–24. 10.1016/j.tibtech.2022.12.018
11.
NaegeliKMKuralMHLiYWangJHugentoblerEANiklasonLE. Bioengineering human tissues and the future of vascular replacement. Circ Res. (2022) 131:109–26. 10.1161/CIRCRESAHA.121.319984
12.
MurryCEMacLellanWR. Stem cells and the heart-the road ahead. Science. (2020) 367:854–5. 10.1126/science.aaz3650
13.
ChoSDischerDELeongKWVunjak-NovakovicGWuJC. Challenges and opportunities for the next generation of cardiovascular tissue engineering. Nat Methods. (2022) 19:1064–71. 10.1038/s41592-022-01591-3
Summary
Keywords
vessel, cardiac function, heart, bioengineering, tissue engineering, organoid, biomaterials, manufacturing
Citation
Sun D, Katare R, Sethu P, Cheng P and Fan Y (2024) Editorial: Constructing the vascular or cardiac tissue and organoids: the combination of biomedicine and engineering. Front. Cardiovasc. Med. 11:1371074. doi: 10.3389/fcvm.2024.1371074
Received
15 January 2024
Accepted
05 February 2024
Published
16 February 2024
Volume
11 - 2024
Edited and reviewed by
Ngan F. Huang, Stanford University, United States
Updates
Copyright
© 2024 Sun, Katare, Sethu, Cheng and Fan.
This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
*Correspondence: Dayu Sun dayusun1028@163.com
Disclaimer
All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.