Targeted Angiogenesis in a Three-Dimensional Scaffold.

描述（由申请人提供）：组织工程已成为一个有前途的新兴研究领域，用于治疗从骨科相关到心脏相关问题的各种生理状况。充血性心力衰竭是美国发病率和死亡率的主要原因，并且在世界范围内正在增加。心力衰竭的主要原因是心肌细胞的损失和有限的再生。因此，组织工程心肌是一个积极发展的研究领域，以恢复心脏功能。有几项研究已经证明了成功的功能心肌工程。在这项研究中，我建议探索一种新的方法，在体内工程的心脏组织-使用一个自发的血管化支架作为三维基板的心脏组织形成通过测试特定的假设。具体而言，目标1将测试自组装肽凝胶通过内源性内皮细胞促进体内自发血管生成的假设。目标2将测试以下假设：将生长因子靶向肽凝胶将加速内皮细胞分化和毛细血管形成，从而改善植入的心肌细胞的存活。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Tissue engineering has become a promising and emerging area of research to treat a variety of physiological conditions ranging from orthopedic-related to cardiac-related problems. Congestive heart failure is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality in the United States and is increasing throughout the world. A major cause of heart failure is the loss and limited regeneration of cardiomyocytes. Therefore, tissue engineering of myocardium is an actively developing area of research to restore cardiac function. There have been several studies that have demonstrated successful engineering of functional myocardium. In this study, I propose exploring a new approach for in vivo engineering of cardiac tissue - to use a spontaneous vascularizing scaffold as a 3-dimensional substrate for cardiac tissue formation through testing of specific hypotheses. Specifically, Aim 1 will test the hypothesis that a self-assembling peptide gel promotes spontaneous angiogenesis in vivo, by endogenous endothelial cells. Aim 2 will test the hypothesis that targeting growth factors to the peptide gel will accelerate endothelial cell differentiation and capillary formation, resulting in improved survival of implanted cardiomyocytes.