Effects of Valve Geometry and Tissue Anisotropy on the Radial Stretch and Coaptation Area of Tissue-Engineered Heart Valves

Tissue engineering represents a promising technique to overcome the limitations of the current valve prostheses, since it allows for synthesizing living, autologous valves that have the potential to grow and remodel in response to changing demands. However, one particular problem with tissue-engineered heart valves (TEHVs) is retraction of the valve leaflets (Fig. 1), which results in valvular insufficiency [1, 2]. As long-term regurgitation will lead to ventricular failure, this is a critical problem that needs to be solved before TEHVs can be used in clinical practice.