My teenager will need another aortic valve replacement in few years time. Could stem cells work on repairing valves

Thanks for your question.

Many scientists hope that stem cell research will have benefits for heart valve problems.

However, at the current state of play it’s more likely that they’ll be used to grow more durable replacement valves in the lab, rather than using stem cells to repair our own damaged or abnormal valves.

So, surgical valve replacement is likely to be here for some time.