Bioinspired Valve Engineering and Cardiovascular Modeling
A Special Issue of Biomimetics (ISSN 2313-7673) belonging to the section "Biomimetic Design, Constructions and Devices".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 October 2026 | Viewed by 1354
Editors
Interests: cardiovascular biomechanics; prosthetic heart valve design; fluid-structure interaction simulations; computational and experimental hemodynamics; calcification prediction; physics of transitional aortic flows; polymeric aortic valves; machine learning for biomedical engineering; high-performance computing; three-dimensional particle tracking velocimetry; 4D flow MRI
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Valvular heart disease affects millions of patients worldwide and remains one of the leading causes of cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. With aging populations and expanding access to interventional cardiology, the demand for prosthetic heart valves continues to grow: an estimated 850,000 patients will require valve replacement annually by 2050. Current clinical options present well-documented trade-offs. Mechanical valves necessitate lifelong anticoagulation therapy, while bioprosthetic valves (surgical or transcatheter options) suffer from progressive calcification and structural degeneration that limit their functional lifespan to 10–15 years. These shortcomings have fueled an intensive search for next-generation designs inspired by the architecture, mechanics, and biology of native cardiac valves. On the materials front, novel polymeric formulations, tissue-engineered constructs, and advanced decellularization and cross-linking strategies seek to reproduce the durability and hemocompatibility of native leaflet tissue. Concurrently, bioinspired leaflet geometries aim to restore physiological flow patterns and attenuate the mechanical stimuli that drive thrombogenicity and calcification.
Recent advances in additive manufacturing, biomaterial science, tissue engineering, and computational modeling are converging to reshape prosthetic valve development. Three-dimensional printing now permits the fabrication of patient-specific elastomeric valves whose leaflet geometry, fiber reinforcement, and material stiffness can be tailored to replicate the biomechanical response of native tissue, while tissue-engineered constructs, whether based on decellularized biological matrices, biodegradable synthetic polymeric scaffolds, or bioactive hydrogels, offer routes toward living, self-repairing replacements. High-fidelity fluid–structure interaction (FSI) simulations, coupling computational fluid dynamics with structural mechanics solvers, provide a means to predict valve hemodynamics, leaflet kinematics, and calcification propensity prior to prototyping; standalone finite-element analyses further complement these predictions with fatigue and durability assessments under cyclic loading. Spectral and modal decomposition of transitional flow structures downstream of prosthetic valves is proving valuable to quantify energy dissipation and turbulence-driven damage to blood constituents. Multiscale, multimodal investigation strategies that correlate micro-CT imaging of explanted valves with histological analysis and computational predictions of leaflet stress and strain fields have proven critical for elucidating the mechanisms of structural valve degeneration and steering biomaterial development. When further coupled with data-driven and machine-learning methods, these computational and experimental tools constitute an in silico-in vitro framework capable of shortening the design-evaluation cycle and advancing personalized cardiovascular prostheses toward clinical translation.
Despite this momentum, a fragmentation persists between the communities working on biomaterials, computational hemodynamics, experimental testing, and clinical evaluation of prosthetic valves. This Special Issue seeks to bridge these domains by gathering contributions that span the full pipeline of bioinspired valve engineering, from biomaterial synthesis and tissue-engineered scaffold development through high-fidelity simulation and in vitro characterization to translational validation. We welcome original research articles, reviews, and methodological perspectives addressing any facet of this continuum.
Topics of interest for publication include, but are not limited to, the following:
- Bioinspired and biomimetic design of prosthetic heart valves (polymeric, tissue-engineered, hybrid);
- Surrogate modeling and computational optimization strategies for cardiovascular prosthesis development;
- Tissue engineering for heart valve biomaterials: decellularized biological matrices, biodegradable polymeric scaffolds, bioactive hydrogels, cell-laden constructs, and bioreactor conditioning;
- Fluid–structure interaction simulations of native and prosthetic valve hemodynamics
- Computational and experimental methods for the development and characterization of valve biomaterials;
- Assessment of valve calcification, thrombogenicity, and structural degeneration through computational, in vitro, and ex vivo approaches;
- Multiscale and multimodal investigation of bioprosthetic valve failure: correlating imaging (e.g., micro-CT, histology) with computational predictions;
- Spectral and modal analysis of transitional and turbulent hemodynamics downstream of pathological and prosthetic valves;
- Patient-specific cardiovascular modeling and digital twins;
- In vitro experimental platforms for valve performance evaluation (pulse duplicators, optical flow measurements);
- Biomimetic materials and additive manufacturing for cardiovascular prostheses;
- Translational strategies for next-generation valve technologies: from computational design to preclinical validation.
Dr. Pascal Corso
Dr. Feng Zhao
Guest Editors
Manuscript Submission Information
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Keywords
- bioinspired valve design
- prosthetic heart valves
- tissue engineering
- biomaterials
- fluid–structure interaction
- cardiovascular hemodynamics
- computational fluid dynamics
- valve calcification
- structural valve degeneration
- multiscale multimodal investigation
- polymeric valves
- machine learning
- digital twins
- additive manufacturing
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