Cardiovascular Protective And Regenerative Engineering

This book presents the concept, foundation, principles, technologies, and applications of cardiovascular protective and regenerative engineering, a newly established branch of biomedical engineering. Protective engineering is to induce and augment innate protective mechanisms to support cell survival prior to cell death in the event of injury or disorder, whereas regenerative engineering is to induce and augment cell regeneration following cell injury and death. The ultimate goal of these engineering manipulations is to mitigate cell injury, restore the structure and function of injured cells, tissues, and/or organs to their natural forms, and maximize recovery from an injury or disorder.This book covers two novel concepts — systems protective mechanisms and engineering. Systems protective mechanisms are naturally evolved processes activated in response to an injury or disorder and are involved in protection against cell death, requiring the participation of multiple regional and trans-system or global protective factors and cell types to assist in recovery of the injured organ. Systems protective engineering evolves from systems protective mechanisms, serving as a foundation for developing protective therapies.The overall goal of this book is to introduce to the reader the fundamental aspects and novel concepts of cardiovascular protective and regenerative engineering, promoting application of protective and regenerative engineering to clinical disciplines and thereby preventing and mitigating cardiovascular disorders. This book can be used as a text for undergraduate and graduate cardiovascular engineering courses and a reference for scientists in related fields.