Journal of tissue engineering and regenerative medicine
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Heart valve tissue engineering is a promising alternative to prostheses for the replacement of diseased or damaged heart valves, because tissue-engineered valves have the ability to remodel, regenerate and grow. To engineer heart valves, cells are harvested, seeded onto or into a three-dimensional (3D) matrix platform to generate a tissue-engineered construct in vitro, and then implanted into a patient's body. ⋯ Natural and synthetic biomaterials that have been applied as scaffold systems or cell-delivery platforms are discussed with each cell type. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.