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Editorial

Cardiac tissue engineering

Division of Thoracic & Cardiovascular Surgery, Hannover Medical School, Hannover, D-30623, Germany

^_* Corresponding author. (Email: Haverich.Axel@mh-hannover.de).

The first 20% of the full text of this article appears below.

‘Dass ich erkenne, was die Welt im Innersten zusammenhält’ (that I should recognize what holds the world together at its core) – when Goethe published his ‘Faust’, he was inspired by the most recent ‘transdisciplinary’ scientific discovery at that time, the synthesis of Urea; an organic substance from inorganic sources, hydrogen, and nitrogen. His fantasy was strong enough to imagine reconstructing entire organisms (homunculus), using respective synthetic pathways. Over 200 years later we are getting closer, providing functional tissues for clinical repair, using scaffolds and cells for (re-)generation of organs and parts thereof. This concept is called tissue engineering and cardiovascular medicine plays a pivotal role in this scientific adventure, which will undoubtedly result in avenues towards reconstruction of an individual's own human heart in the years to come. ‘Alles ist einfacher als man denken kann, zugleich verschränkter, als zu begreifen ist’ (everything . . . [Full Text of this Article]