Electrically conductive biopolymer-based hydrogels and fibrous materials fabricated using 3D printing and electrospinning for cardiac tissue engineering.

Cardiovascular diseases pose a significant global health challenge, driving ongoing efforts to develop effective treatments. Various biofabrication technologies utilizing numerous materials have been employed to design functional cardiac tissues. Choosing the right material is crucial to support cardiac cell growth, proliferation, tissue maturation and functionality.

Enhancing Form Stability: Shrink-Resistant Hydrogels Made of Interpenetrating Networks of Recombinant Spider Silk and Collagen-I.

Tissue engineering enables the production of tissues and organ-like structures as models for drug testing and mechanistical studies or functional replacements for injured tissues. Available cytocompatible materials are limited in number, suffer from insufficient mechanical properties, and cells interacting with them often cause construct shrinkage. As shape is important for function, identifying cytocompatible, shrink-resistant materials are a major aim.

Enhancing biofabrication: Shrink-resistant collagen-hyaluronan composite hydrogel for tissue engineering and 3D bioprinting applications.

Biofabrication represents a promising technique for creating tissues for regeneration or as models for drug testing. Collagen-based hydrogels are widely used as suitable matrix owing to their biocompatibility and tunable mechanical properties. However, one major challenge is that the encapsulated cells interact with the collagen matrix causing construct shrinkage.

Nephronectin Is Required for Vascularization in Zebrafish and Sufficient to Promote Mammalian Vessel-Like Structures in Hydrogels for Tissue Engineering.

Background: Organs and tissues need to be vascularized during development. Similarly, vascularization is required to engineer thick tissues. How vessels are formed during organogenesis is not fully understood, and vascularization of engineered tissues remains a significant challenge.

Incorporation of montmorillonite into microfluidics-generated chitosan microfibers enhances neuron-like PC12 cells for application in neural tissue engineering.

The complexity in structure and function of the nervous system, as well as its slow rate of regeneration, makes it more difficult to treat it compared to other tissues. Neural tissue engineering aims to create an appropriate environment for nerve cell proliferation and differentiation. Fibrous scaffolds with suitable morphology and topography and better mimicry of the extracellular matrix have been promising for the alignment and migration of neural cells.

Electrically Conductive Collagen-PEDOT:PSS Hydrogel Prevents Post-Infarct Cardiac Arrhythmia and Supports hiPSC-Cardiomyocyte Function.

Myocardial infarction (MI) causes cell death, disrupts electrical activity, triggers arrhythmia, and results in heart failure, whereby 50-60% of MI-associated deaths manifest as sudden cardiac deaths (SCD). The most effective therapy for SCD prevention is implantable cardioverter defibrillators (ICDs). However, ICDs contribute to adverse remodeling and disease progression and do not prevent arrhythmia.

Static magnetic field enhances the bone remodelling capacity of human demineralized bone matrix in a rat animal model of cranial bone defects.

The regeneration of bone defects that exceed 2 cm is a challenge for the human body, necessitating interventional therapies. Demineralized bone matrices (DBM) derived from biological tissues have been employed for bone regeneration and possess notable osteoinductive and osteoconductive characteristics. Nevertheless, their efficiency in regenerating critically sized injuries is limited, and therefore additional signaling cues are required.

Potential of graphene-based nanomaterials for cardiac tissue engineering.

Cardiovascular diseases are the primary cause of death worldwide. Despite significant advances in pharmacological treatments and surgical interventions to restore heart function after myocardial infarction, it can progress to heart failure due to the restricted inherent potential of adult cardiomyocytes to self-regenerate. Hence, the evolution of new therapeutic methods is critical.

Collagen Hydrogel Containing Polyethylenimine-Gold Nanoparticles for Drug Release and Enhanced Beating Properties of Engineered Cardiac Tissues.

Cardiac tissue engineering is a promising strategy to prevent heart failure. However, several issues remain unsolved, including efficient electrical coupling and incorporating factors to enhance tissue maturation and vascularization. Herein, a biohybrid hydrogel that enhances beating properties of engineered cardiac tissues and allows drug release concurrently is developed.

Microfluidically fabricated fibers containing pancreatic islets and mesenchymal stromal cells improve longevity and sustained normoglycemia in diabetic rats.

Type 1 diabetes mellitus is an autoimmune disease characterized by the loss of pancreatic isletcells. Insulin injections and pancreas transplants are currently available therapies. The former requires daily insulin injections, while the latter is constrained by donor organ availability.

Biomimetic Organic-Inorganic Nanocomposite Scaffolds to Regenerate Cranial Bone Defects in a Rat Animal Model.

While bone regenerates itself after an injury, a critical bone defect requires external interventions. Engineering approaches to restore bone provide a temporary scaffold to support the damage and provide beneficial biological cues for bone repair. Biomimetically generated scaffolds replicate the naturally occurring phenomena in bone regeneration.

CHIR99021 Promotes hiPSC-Derived Cardiomyocyte Proliferation in Engineered 3D Microtissues.

Cardiac tissue engineering is a promising strategy to generate human cardiac tissues for modeling cardiac diseases, screening for therapeutic drugs, and repairing the injured heart. Yet, several issues remain to be resolved including the generation of tissues with high cardiomyocyte density. Here, it is shown that the integration of the glycogen synthase kinase-3β inhibitor CHIR99021 in collagen I hydrogels promotes proliferation of human-induced pluripotent stem cell-derived (hiPSC) cardiomyocytes post-fabrication improving contractility of and calcium flow in engineered 3D cardiac microtissues.

Stem Cells and Their Cardiac Derivatives for Cardiac Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine.

Heart failure is among the leading causes of morbidity worldwide with a 5-year mortality rate of ∼50%. Therefore, major efforts are invested to reduce heart damage upon injury or maintain and at best restore heart function. In clinical trials, acellular constructs succeeded in improving cardiac function by stabilizing the infarcted heart.

Recombinant spider silk protein eADF4(C16)-RGD coatings are suitable for cardiac tissue engineering.

Cardiac tissue engineering is a promising approach to treat cardiovascular diseases, which are a major socio-economic burden worldwide. An optimal material for cardiac tissue engineering, allowing cardiomyocyte attachment and exhibiting proper immunocompatibility, biocompatibility and mechanical characteristics, has not yet emerged. An additional challenge is to develop a fabrication method that enables the generation of proper hierarchical structures and constructs with a high density of cardiomyocytes for optimal contractility.

Carbon nanotube doped pericardial matrix derived electroconductive biohybrid hydrogel for cardiac tissue engineering.

Cardiovascular diseases represent a major socio-economic burden. In recent years, considerable effort has been invested in optimizing cell delivery strategies to advance cell transplantation therapies to restore heart function for example after an infarct. A particular issue is that the implantation of cells using a non-electroconductive matrix potentially causes arrhythmia.

Promoting vascularization for tissue engineering constructs: current strategies focusing on HIF-regulating scaffolds.

Introduction: Vascularization remains one of the greatest yet unmet challenges in tissue engineering. When engineered tissues are scaled up to therapeutically relevant dimensions, their demand of oxygen and nutrients can no longer be met by diffusion. Thus, there is a need for perfusable vascular structures.