(ORDO NEWS) — Researchers have been successful in creating heart tissues in a biodegradable gel that can be used in the treatment of cardiovascular disease. The study was presented at the British Cardiovascular Society conference in Manchester.
With the world facing more heart-related illnesses, researchers in the UK have developed a new gel that can help repair the damage caused by a heart attack. The researchers were able to support heart muscle growth with the gel.
Scientists have long been looking for ways to reduce the risk of progression of heart failure. However, only one percent of the cells injected directly into the heart remained in place and survived. Recent research has helped develop a new gel that can be safely injected directly into the heart to form a scaffold for growing new tissue.
The gel is made up of chains of amino acids called peptides, the building blocks of proteins. The bonds between the peptides mean that the gel can exist in different states. When under stress, the peptides disassemble and behave like a liquid, making it ideal for injectables.
A team of researchers from the University of Manchester hope their gel will be a key part of future regenerative treatments for damaged hearts.
“The heart has a very limited ability to repair any damage it can withstand. Our research looked for ways to overcome this so that we can keep our hearts in a healthier place for longer.
Although it is still early, the potential for this new technology to help repair failing hearts after a heart attack is enormous,” said graduate student Katherine King, who led the study.
She is confident that the gel will be an effective way of cell therapy, which will help the damaged heart to recover.
The researchers argue that a good blood supply will be vital for the development of the injected cells into new tissue, and they have observed signs of blood vessel growth in the gel, proving that the technology can stimulate new vessel growth.
The team was also able to show that the gel can support the growth of normal heart muscle tissue. The scientists were able to grow new tissues when they added human cells to the gel that had been reprogrammed to become heart muscle cells. After growing for three weeks, the cells began to function normally.
The British Heart Foundation, which funded the project, said the team injected the fluorescently labeled gel into the hearts of healthy mice, which showed that the gel remained in the heart for two weeks.
Echocardiograms (ultrasounds of the heart) and electrocardiograms (ECGs, which measure the electrical activity of the heart) have shown the method to be safe.
The researchers now plan to test the gel in mice after a heart attack to see if heart cells can create new muscle tissue.
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