Injectable gel could repair damaged heart tissue
Researchers in the US have developed a new injectable hydrogel that could be an effective and safe treatment for tissue damage caused by heart attacks.
Developed by a team at University of California, San Diego, the hydrogel is made up of cardiac connective tissue that is stripped of heart muscle cells through a cleansing process, freeze dried and milled into powder form before being liquefied.
Once it hits body temperature, the liquid turns into a semi-solid, porous gel that encourages cells to repopulate areas of damaged cardiac tissue and to preserve heart function. The hydrogel forms a scaffold to repair the tissue and provides biochemical signals that prevent further deterioration in the surrounding tissues.
"It helps to promote a positive remodelling type response, not a pro-inflammatory one in the damaged heart," said Professor Karen Christman, who led the team.
The researchers' experiments show that the gel can also be injected through a catheter, a method that is minimally invasive and does not require surgery or general anesthesia. New, unpublished work by Christman's team also suggests that the gel can improve heart function in pigs with cardiac damage.
Christmas concluded: "Most of the materials that people have looked at have been tested in rats or mice, and they are injectable via a needle and syringe. However, almost all of them are not compatible with catheter delivery and would gel too quickly, clogging the catheter during the procedure.
"In experiments with rats, the gel was not rejected by the body and did not trigger arrhythmic heart beating, providing some assurance that the gel will be similarly safe for humans."
