Abstract
Myocardial infarction (MI) is the consequence of coronary artery thrombosis resulting in ischemia and necrosis of the myocardium. As a result, billions of contractile cardiomyocytes are lost with poor innate regeneration capability. This degenerated tissue is replaced by collagen-rich fibrotic scar tissue as the usual body response to quickly repair the injury. The non-conductive nature of this tissue results in arrhythmias and asynchronous beating leading to total heart failure in the long run due to ventricular remodelling. Traditional pharmacological and assistive device approaches have failed to meet the utmost need for tissue regeneration to repair MI injuries. Engineered heart tissues (EHTs) seem promising alternatives, but their non-conductive nature could not resolve problems such as arrhythmias and asynchronous beating for long term in-vivo applications. The ability of nanotechnology to mimic the nano-bioarchitecture of the extracellular matrix and the potential of cardiac tissue engineering to engineer heart-like tissues makes it a unique combination to develop conductive constructs. Biomaterials blended with conductive nanomaterials could yield conductive constructs (referred to as extrinsically conductive). These cell-laden conductive constructs can alleviate cardiac functions when implanted in-vivo. A succinct review of the most promising applications of nanomaterials in cardiac tissue engineering to repair MI injuries is presented with a focus on extrinsically conductive nanomaterials.
Highlights
Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) are the leading cause of death globally with 523 million active cases as of 2019 and claimed 18.6 million lives the same year [1]
Multi-wall carbon nanotubes/multi-wall carbon nanotube (MWCNTs) (10–200 nm diwere blended with decellularised pericardial matrix and after one week, cultured HL-1 ameter) were blended with decellularised pericardial matrix and after one week, cultured myocytes demonstrated a high proliferation rate with cardiac phenotype [88,89]
Several folds increase in the expression of Cx43, myosin heavy chain (MHC), troponins, GATA4 and Atrial natriuretic factor (ANF) led to the formation of contractile cytoskeletal structure compared to when cells were cultured on non-conductive substrates [125]
Summary
Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) are the leading cause of death globally with 523 million active cases as of 2019 and claimed 18.6 million lives the same year [1]. Inorganic nanomaterials embedded in yield heart-like tissues in-vitro which could decrease the resistivity ofbiomaterials the fibrotic scar tissue induce a different mechanism of conduction referred to as extrinsically conductive in when implanted in-vivo. This in turn would result in better propagation of the electrical this article. Both structures, when seeded with cardiac cells yield heart-like tissues in-vitro signals through it overcoming issues regarding nurturing electrical which could decrease the resistivity the of the fibrotic scar tissue arrhythmias.
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