Application of Biomaterials in Cardiac Repair and Regeneration

Cardiovascular disease is a leading cause of death throughout the world. The demand for new therapeutic interventions is increasing. Although pharmacological and surgical interventions dramatically improve the quality of life of cardiovascular disease patients, cheaper and less invasive approaches are always preferable. Biomaterials, both natural and synthetic, exhibit great potential in cardiac repair and regeneration, either as a carrier for drug delivery or as an extracellular matrix substitute scaffold. In this review, we discuss the current treatment options for several cardiovascular diseases, as well as types of biomaterials that have been investigated as potential therapeutic interventions for said diseases. We especially highlight investigations into the possible use of conductive polymers for correcting ischemic heart disease-induced conduction abnormalities, and the generation of biological pacemakers to improve the conduction pathway in heart block. (C) 2016 THE AUTHORS. Published by Elsevier LTD on behalf of Chinese Academy of Engineering and Higher Education Press Limited Company. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).