Project R-14813

Tailored hydrogel scaffolds for cardiac repair (Research)

Myocardial infarction (MI) is an acute blood supply interruption in a coronary artery, resulting in an irreversible damage to the heart. Despite successful acute treatment of coronary events, adverse cardiac remodeling following MI often evolves into cardiac failure. Current therapies reduce the risk of recurrent infarctions but do not replace the lost cardiac tissue, thereby only slowing down the progression towards heart failure. As the renewal rate of the heart is minimal, strategies to replace lost cardiac tissue are urgently needed. So far, cell-based approaches to replace cardiomyocytes only showed minor improvements, in both pre-clinical models and clinical trials. One reason for these disappointing results can be found in the poor stem cell retention at the transplantation site. Injectable hydrogels have been demonstrated as a way to increase stem cell retention. In this project, hydrogel scaffolds will be tailored to the needs of cardiac atrial appendage stem cells (CASCs), a promising stem cell population for cardiac repair. Elastin-like proteins and hyaluronic acidare combined in dynamic hydrogels and validated in vitro and in vivo as stem cell delivery vehicles. Moreover, the project also considers the surrounding tissue and will study how interactions with the native extra cellular matrix can be stimulated towards better stem cell engraftment and differentiation

01 October 2024 - 30 September 2028