Currently available valve and conduit artery substitutes have one or more significant disadvantages including limited durability, thrombogenicity, susceptibility to infection, and a lack of growth potential. Prior attempts to use autologous tissues in the construction of valve or arterial substitutes to overcome some of these limitations have not been successful. The use of tissue engineering techniques to construct valve and arterial substitutes from individual autologous cell lines and biodegradable polymer scaffolds are now under investigation in the laboratory, and the initial short term results in animals have been encouraging. These tissue engineering techniques offer the possibility of creating structures for replacement of valves and conduit arteries which are viable and have the capacity for self-repair and therefore greater durability. In addition, these structures should be non-thrombogenic and less susceptible to infection, and will have growth potential. Copyright 1999 by W.B. Saunders Company