| Summary: | Saeed Mohammadi Nasr,1 Navid Rabiee,2 Sakineh Hajebi,3,4 Sepideh Ahmadi,5 Yousef Fatahi,6– 8 Masoumehossadat Hosseini,9,10 Mojtaba Bagherzadeh,2 Amir Mohammad Ghadiri,2 Mohammad Rabiee,11 Vahid Jajarmi,12,13 Thomas J Webster14 1Faculty of Chemical Engineering, Sahand University of Technology, Tabriz, Iran; 2Department of Chemistry, Sharif University of Technology, Tehran, Iran; 3Faculty of Polymer Engineering, Sahand University of Technology, Tabriz, Iran; 4Institute of Polymeric Materials, Sahand University of Technology, Tabriz, Iran; 5Student Research Committee, Department of Medical Biotechnology, School of Advanced Technologies in Medicine, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran; 6Department of Pharmaceutical Nanotechnology, Faculty of Pharmacy, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran; 7Nanotechnology Research Centre, Faculty of Pharmacy, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran; 8Universal Scientific Education and Research Network (USERN), Tehran, Iran; 9Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Chemistry and Petroleum Sciences, Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, Iran; 10Soroush Mana Pharmed, Pharmaceutical Holding, Golrang Industrial Group, Tehran, Iran; 11Biomaterial Group, Department of Biomedical Engineering, Amirkabir University of Technology, Tehran, Iran; 12Department of Medical Biotechnology, School of Advanced Technologies in Medicine, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran; 13Cellular and Molecular Biology Research Center, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran; 14Department of Chemical Engineering, Northeastern University, Boston, MA 02115, United StatesCorrespondence: Thomas J Webster Email th.webster@neu.eduAbstract: Cardiovascular diseases are the number one cause of heart failure and death in the world, and the transplantation of the heart is an effective and viable choice for treatment despite presenting many disadvantages (most notably, transplant heart availability). To overcome this problem, cardiac tissue engineering is considered a promising approach by using implantable artificial blood vessels, injectable gels, and cardiac patches (to name a few) made from biodegradable polymers. Biodegradable polymers are classified into two main categories: natural and synthetic polymers. Natural biodegradable polymers have some distinct advantages such as biodegradability, abundant availability, and renewability but have some significant drawbacks such as rapid degradation, insufficient electrical conductivity, immunological reaction, and poor mechanical properties for cardiac tissue engineering. Synthetic biodegradable polymers have some advantages such as strong mechanical properties, controlled structure, great processing flexibility, and usually no immunological concerns; however, they have some drawbacks such as a lack of cell attachment and possible low biocompatibility. Some applications have combined the best of both and exciting new natural/synthetic composites have been utilized. Recently, the use of nanostructured polymers and polymer nanocomposites has revolutionized the field of cardiac tissue engineering due to their enhanced mechanical, electrical, and surface properties promoting tissue growth. In this review, recent research on the use of biodegradable natural/synthetic nanocomposite polymers in cardiac tissue engineering is presented with forward looking thoughts provided for what is needed for the field to mature.Keywords: biodegradable polymer, tissue engineering, cardiac cell, composite, natural, synthetic
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