Novel Cell Scaffolds: Guiding Heart Muscle Tissue Growth
Biography Overview Heart disease is the leading cause of death in the U.S. During acute myocardial infarction (one of the most common diagnoses of early heart disease) a part of the heart muscle tissue is damaged beyond repair, which can lead to congestive heart failure, an incurable condition. Therefore, there is a strong need to develop treatments for patients with damaged heart tissue. The proposed research aims to develop novel 3D cell-scaffolds that guide tissue development. Since heart muscle tissue consists of highly aligned myofibers, a scaffold that promotes tissue formation and tissue alignment is essential. To accomplish these design requirements, a highly porous scaffold will be designed where channels are introduced through photo-patterning. To promote and maintain cell differentiation, skeletal myoblasts or primary cardiac myocytes will be suspended in a pre-hydrogel solution and seeded onto the scaffold. Upon gelation, the cells will be embedded in a 3D tissue-like microenvironment while the macroenvironment promotes unidirectional growth of myofibers. The micro-(gel) and macro-(porous scaffold) environments can be fine tuned independently to match tissue growth.
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