Science: Scientists Bring Artificial Patches to Fix Heart Damage

Usually after the death of myocardial infarction, damaged myocardial tissue is difficult to recover, and scars without contraction scaron in the heart are formed, putting patients at risk of arrhythmia and heart failurein recent years, cell therapy has been seen as a potential means of repairing the heartMany studies and clinical trials show that the use of adult stem cells secreted growth factors, chemokines, exosomes and other biologically active substances, can play a role in promoting cardiomyopathy protection, angiogenesis, regulating local inflammatory response, promote extracellular matrix remodeling and other roles, so as to treat damaged hearthowever, the clinical application of cardiocellular therapy has been limitedFor example, self-replicating of transplanted cells may increase the risk of cancer; large numbers of cells transplanted into the heart may also induce arrhythmia; and transplants of allogeneic cells can lead to an immune rejection responseIn addition, cell extraction, culture, storage and transportation are complex, expensive and time-consuming, making it difficult to meet the standardization requirements of mass production of high-quality drugsto address the limitations of cell therapy, the scientists developed artificial heart patch (artCP) that contains no living cells but is biologically active, replacing the heart with a "no-no-go" alternative to living cellsspecifically, the researchers used the pig's extraterrestrial matrix (myoECM), which is free of live cells, as a skeleton that maintains a natural mesh structure and has similar mechanical properties in heart tissue;the artCP diagram of the artificial heart patch (Photo: Resources 1)the team validated the artificial heart patch in the heart-stalks models of two animals, rats and pigsresearchers first implanted artCP in the heart infarction area of ratsAfter 24 hours, compared to injecting synCSC directly into the heart muscle, they observed that artCP effectively retained synCSC syncous syncone syncid cells in the infarction region, minimizing off-target lossAfter 7 days of implantation and 21 days, the results of the analysis of the immune rejection response verified the biocompatibility of artCPfrom the treatment effect, rats received artCP transplantation for 3 weeks, and the left ventricular blood score (an important indicator of evaluating heart function) improved significantly compared to the control groupArtCP transplantation can significantly reduce the area of scarring and increase the thickness of the living heart muscle tissue and left wall in the hazardous areaAlso, transplanted artCP embedded in synCSC synth synthetic cells had a more significant therapeutic effect than myoECM, which had only skeletonsalong with improved heart function, the staining results of tissue slices also showed that the cardiomyopathy tissue of rats was repaired to a certain extentAt the same time, artCP transplantation increased capillary density in the infarction region and reduced apoptosis in the heart infarction boundary areanext, the researchers further validated the effects of artificial heart patches using pig hearts with anatomical structures similar to humansIn the heart of a pig with an infarction, the researchers implanted a 3.5 cm diameter artCP in the infarction area and compared them to animals that had not received any treatmentAfter 7 days, an electrocardiogram and cardiac ultrasound evaluation revealed that artCP therapy improved heart functionOther results showed that the area of myocardial infarction on part of the heart slice was significantly reduced in the area covered by artCP, which also reduced myocardial fibrosisseveral animal experiments have shown that artCP transplants do not cause liver and kidney damage, indicating that it is safe in animalseven more noteworthy, cryopreservation artCP exhibits similar therapeutic efficacy with freshly prepared artCPExcellent low temperature stability allows this artificial heart patch to have a longer shelf life than a live cell patch and is expected to meet the demand for "ready-to-use" products in future clinical applicationsReferences1, Ke Huang et al., (2020) An off-the-ses ar cardiac cardiac hearteds cardiac repair after myocardial infarction inrats and pigsScience Translational MedicineDOI:Original Title: Science Sub-magazine Cover: Professor Cheng Ke's team brings artificial patches to repair heart damage