Regenerative medicine and congenital heart diseases: Current approaches and future directions

Congenital heart disease (CHD) is one of the most common disorders in newborns. The disease may be present in as many as 0.013% of newborns. Even with the vast development of the medical field and surgical interventions, the fact remains that serious CHDs are the leading cause of death and disability for children who may have to endure long-term problems such as heart failure and other systemic issues. About 80% of infants and toddlers with CHDs have the potential to reach adulthood. Hence, the cost and effectiveness of care for such patients have become complex. Advances in regenerative medicine, specifically stem cell therapies, have significantly progressed in treating CHD. Different stem cells were used together with the corresponding findings, with success, in the separate preclinical works. These methods are planned to treat heart problems, thus reducing complications and improving the heart’s overall function. However, drawbacks like immune rejection, scalability, and safety hinder the application of these approaches to clinical practice. This paper comprehensively explores the existing CHD management techniques in regenerative medicine, including tissue engineering, gene therapy, and biomaterials development. Furthermore, issues such as 3D bioprinting, CRISPR gene editing, and the use of organoids for heart tissue modeling are also discussed. Steady progress has been realized in treating these diseases using stem cells. However, ethical considerations and legislation on the use of stem cells, in general, should become a part of the study and review process for already safe and fair patient access. The key to curing CHD diseases will be to overcome the challenges and to bring preclinical successes to life in the clinic. By enhancing our knowledge about heart formation and refinement of regenerative treatments, we would have more success stories with CHD patients and help them obtain a better quality of life and a brighter future.