Tissue-Engineered Solutions for Heart Disease

A grant has been awarded to fund research aimed at developing tissue-engineered solutions for treating heart disease, such as a cardiac patch and blood vessels for possible surgical use following a heart attack. The grant of US$5 million was made by the US National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute to The McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh (PA, USA).

The planned projects will combine the expertise of the University faculty in stem cell biology, tissue engineering, and imaging. Both projects will establish populations of stem cells from muscles or bone marrow within a polymer that is specially formulated for flexibility and permeability and that biodegrades at a stable rate into nontoxic components in the body. The researchers plan to use this polymer scaffold as a bridge to generate new, healthy native tissue.

The cardiac patch will be designed to serve as replacement tissue for damaged or diseased heart muscle. The process involves seeding of stem cells onto a biodegradable polymer scaffold and training this tissue for the rhythmic contractions that it will ultimately need to perform. In the second project, researchers will seek to develop tissue-engineered blood vessels that are biologically and functionally equivalent to a patient's own blood vessels, such as those used for coronary artery bypass surgery.

"This work is a fine example of the unique synergy among research disciplines that defines tissue engineering,” said Alan J. Russell, Ph.D., director of the McGowan Institute. "At the very least, these projects will significantly enhance our knowledge base about tissue regeneration and controlling tissue structure.”





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