Designing cardiac patches for myocardial regeneration–a review

Myocardial infarction is one of the leading causes of death globally and in most cases, heart transplantation is required. As an alternative to heart transplantation, engineered cardiac patches have been recently developed as a potential solution for restoring cardiac function. Engineering a cardiac patch necessitates tailoring various design criteria mainly including materials, i.e., natural and/or synthetic, mechanical and physical properties, and fabrication method. Here, we review and examine the latest research on design of engineered cardiac patches and provide a critical analysis and direction for future works.