Cutting-edge platforms in cardiac tissue engineering

•In the past few years, new approaches for the assembly 3D cardiac tissues have been developed.•Layer by layer assembly, 3D bioprinting and bionic tissue engineering are presented here.•Future prospects building upon these cutting edge technologies are described in this review.

As cardiac disease takes a higher toll with each passing year, the need for new therapies to deal with the scarcity in heart donors becomes ever more pressing. Cardiac tissue engineering holds the promise of creating functional replacement tissues to repair heart tissue damage. In an attempt to bridge the gap between the lab and clinical realization, the field has made major strides. In this review, we will discuss state of the art technologies such as layer-by-layer assembly, bioprinting and bionic tissue engineering, all developed to overcome some of the major hurdles faced in the field.

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