Artificial heart valve Artificial heart valve An artificial heart valve is a device implanted in the heart of a patient with valvular heart disease. When one of the four heart valves malfunctions, the medical choice may be to replace the natural valve with an artificial valve. This requires open-heart surgery. Valves are integral to the normal physiological functioning of the human heart. Natural heart valves are evolved to forms that perform the functional requirement of inducing unidirectional blood flow through the valve structure from one chamber of the heart to another. Natural heart valves become dysfunctional for a variety of pathological causes. Some
Artificial cell cells have been proposed as a non-viral vector by which genetically modified non-autologous cells are encapsulated and implanted to deliver recombinant proteins "in vivo". This type of immuno-isolation has been proven efficient in mice through delivery of artificial cells containing mouse growth hormone which rescued a growth-retardation in mutant mice. A few strategies have advanced to human clinical trials for the treatment of pancreatic cancer, lateral sclerosis and pain control. The first clinical use of artificial cells was in hemoperfusion by the encapsulation of activated charcoal. Activated charcoal has the capability of adsorbing many large molecules and has for a