Heart Regeneration: The Bioengineering Approach

The low cell survival following direct cell injection motivated the use of biomaterials in cardiac restoration therapies. Two distinct categories of biomaterial-based cardiac cell therapy were introduced: a tissue engineered cardiac patch and an injectable biomaterial/cell graft. The tissue engineering method attempts to create a tissue analog in vitro, which is to be sutured directly onto the infracted myocardium. The injectable biomaterial approach is designed to locally deliver cell grafts. Generally, cardiac restoration with injectable biomaterials is focused on the use of liquid-to-solid hydrogels as cell carriers that, when combined with cells, should increase the cell survival and improve the overall contractility of the infarcted myocardium. In spite of the enormous potential of cardiac cell therapy in this regard, some recent studies have focused on using only biomaterials alone to stabilize the cardiac wall geometry and prevent cardiac remodeling, without cell therapy.