Abstract
The human heart possesses minimal regenerative potential, which can often lead to chronic heart failure following myocardial infarction. Despite the successes of assistive support devices and pharmacological therapies, only a whole heart transplantation can sufficiently address heart failure. Engineered scaffolds, implantable patches, and injectable hydrogels are among the most promising solutions to restore cardiac function and coax regeneration; however, current biomaterials have yet to achieve ideal tissue regeneration and adequate integration due a mismatch of material physicochemical properties. Conductive fillers such as graphene, carbon nanotubes, metallic nanoparticles, and MXenes and conjugated polymers such as polyaniline, polypyrrole, and poly(3,4-ethylendioxythiophene) can possibly achieve optimal electrical conductivities for cardiac applications with appropriate suitability for tissue engineering approaches. Many studies have focused on the use of these materials in multiple fields, with promising effects on the regeneration of electrically active biological tissues such as orthopedic, neural, and cardiac tissue. In this review, we critically discuss the role of heart electrophysiology and the rationale toward the use of electroconductive biomaterials for cardiac tissue engineering. We present the emerging applications of these smart materials to create supportive platforms and discuss the crucial role that electrical stimulation has been shown to exert in maturation of cardiac progenitor cells.
Highlights
Cardiac muscle relies on an intricate coordination of action potentials and calcium signal propagation in order to exert synchronous beating to pump blood around our bodies
We present the emerging applications of these smart materials to create supportive platforms and discuss the crucial role that electrical stimulation has been shown to exert in maturation of cardiac progenitor cells
Quite often, such coordination becomes interrupted due to ischemic death of myocardial muscle stemming from the advent of atherosclerosis and myocardial infarction (MI), more commonly known as a “heart attack.”[3,4,5,6] This ischemic insult to myocardial muscle often results in the formation of a fibrotic scar which, lends some compensatory role to replace the necrotic myocardial core, is relatively inert to the electric signaling of the heart acting as an insulating tissue that isolates remote cardiomyocytes (CMs) and impedes communication of healthy tissue
Summary
Cardiac muscle relies on an intricate coordination of action potentials and calcium signal propagation in order to exert synchronous beating to pump blood around our bodies. Local application of biomaterials has been postulated as a beneficial treatment with collateral support and mechanical strengthening being one of the mechanisms hypothesized to stem from this treatment.[20] Typical biomaterials can be relatively inert in nature, composed of either synthetic or natural polymers or a combination of both, and exist in forms of injectable hydrogels,[21] geometrically defined scaffolds,[22] particulates,[23] or as substrate coatings.[24] Such materials can possess predefined mechanical properties with adequate biocompatibility and often have been reported to improve[25] or maintain myocardial function[26] but essentially exist as inert depots and at the most adding some mechanical support to the compromised myocardium Such materials have evolved though to possess additional complexity with the incorporation of cells,[27] drugs,[28] and gene therapy.[29]. This review is a discussion of this burgeoning field in adopting electroconductive materials to treat MI by their application and in achieving cardiac organoids to study cardiac disease
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