Application of plasma polymerized pyrrole nanoparticles to prevent or reduce de-differentiation of adult rat ventricular cardiomyocytes

Omar Uribe-Juárez,Juan Morales-Corona,Roberto Olayo-Valles,Roberto Olayo,E J Alvarado,Rafael Godínez,Myrian Velasco,M C Acosta-García,Luis Miguel-Alavez,Oscar-J Carrillo-González,María G Flores-Sánchez

doi:10.1007/s10856-021-06595-7

Abstract

Cardiovascular diseases are the leading cause of death in the world, cell therapies have been shown to recover cardiac function in animal models. Biomaterials used as scaffolds can solve some of the problems that cell therapies currently have, plasma polymerized pyrrole (PPPy) is a biomaterial that has been shown to promote cell adhesion and survival. The present research aimed to study PPPy nanoparticles (PPPyN) interaction with adult rat ventricular cardiomyocytes (ARVC), to explore whether PPPyN could be employed as a nanoscaffold and develop cardiac microtissues. PPPyN with a mean diameter of 330 nm were obtained, the infrared spectrum showed that some pyrrole rings are fragmented and that some fragments of the ring can be dehydrogenated during plasma synthesis, it also showed the presence of amino groups in the structure of PPPyN. PPPyN had a significant impact on the ARVC´s shape, delaying dedifferentiation, necrosis, and apoptosis processes, moreover, the cardiomyocytes formed cell aggregates up to 1.12 mm2 with some aligned cardiomyocytes and generated fibers on its surface similar to cardiac extracellular matrix. PPPyN served as a scaffold for adult ARVC. Our results indicate that PPPyN-scaffold is a biomaterial that could have potential application in cardiac cell therapy (CCT).

Highlights

Cardiovascular diseases (CVD) are the leading cause of death in the world, the World Health Organization estimates that 80% of CVD deaths correspond to myocardial infarction and strokes [1, 2]
We show that PPPy nanoparticles (PPPyN), with sizes in the range of 100–500 nm, interact with adult rat ventricular cardiomyocytes (ARVC) and can be employed as nanoscaffolds for the development of cardiac microtissues
The PPPyN size decrees linearly with the applied power [30], smaller PPPyN could be obtained increasing the synthesis power, previous studies have shown that nanoparticles with sizes below 100 nm are not suitable for use as nanoscaffolds

Summary

Introduction

Cardiovascular diseases (CVD) are the leading cause of death in the world, the World Health Organization estimates that 80% of CVD deaths correspond to myocardial infarction and strokes [1, 2]. CCT with human pluripotent stem cells, which are until now the only demonstrated and robust source of either authentic human cardiomyogenic progenitors or differentiated cardiomyocytes, has been shown to enhances cardiac function in macaque monkeys with large myocardial infarctions, and their clinical safety in humans are being to be studied [7,8,9]. Some problems faced in CCT are cell retention, survival of the engrafted cells, cell differentiation, and integration of transplanted cells with the tissue [9, 10]. Some of these problems can be overcome using scaffolds for cardiac cells [11]. Scaffolds are biomaterials that provide a healthy environment for cell adhesion, differentiation, proliferation, and migration [12]

Methods

Results

Conclusion