Degradable Cardiac Patch with Immuno-modulatory function

心血管疾病(CVD)是世界上主要的死亡原因。具体地说，2012年，心血管疾病造成全球约1 750万人死亡，加拿大62,000人死亡，给加拿大经济造成的损失超过212亿美元。心肌梗死或心脏病发作是心血管疾病相关死亡的主要原因，由于心脏再生能力有限，导致不可逆转的心肌损伤。这最终可能导致终末期心力衰竭，目前正在使用心脏移植和脑室辅助装置(VAD)进行治疗。然而，供体器官的短缺以及VAD的高昂成本以及它们缺乏对所有患者类型的长期适合性是这些标准治疗的重大限制。组织工程和心脏组织的发育已成为修复和替代受损心肌的一种有前途的方法，也是预防终末期心力衰竭的一种手段。在这个项目中，利用Santerre实验室的生物材料专业知识和Bendeck实验室(多伦多大学)的心血管生物学专业知识以及大学医院网络的Epelman博士实验室的临床专业知识，一种新型的可降解聚氨酯支架将与来自脂肪干细胞的心脏细胞相结合，以开发一种功能性和血管化的心脏补片，该支架使用已被证明可以调节植入后早期免疫反应的生物材料平台。工程贴片的性质、性能和存活率将进行研究，以使其在体内受益。

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading cause of death in the world. Specifically, in 2012,CVD was responsible for ~17.5 million deaths globally and 62,000 deaths in Canada, costingthe Canadian economy more than $21.2 billion. Myocardial infarction or heart attacksrepresent the main cause of CVD-related deaths, resulting in irreversible heart muscledamage due to the limited regenerative capacity of the heart. This can ultimately lead to endstageheart failure, which is currently treated using heart transplantation and ventricular assistdevices (VADs). However, a shortage of donor organs as well as the high cost of VADs andtheir lack of long-term suitability for all patient types are significant limitations of thesestandard treatments. Tissue engineering and the development of cardiac tissue has becomea promising method for the repair and replacement of damaged myocardium and a means ofpreventing end-stage heart failure. In this project, and utilizing the biomaterial expertise ofSanterre lab and the cardiovascular biology expertise of the Bendeck lab (both at theUniversity of Toronto) and clinical expertise of the Dr. Epelman lab at the University Hospitalnetwork, a novel degradable polyurethane scaffold, using a biomaterial platform that has beenshown to modulate the early immune response upon implantation, will be combined withcardiac cells, which will be derived from adipose stem cells, in order to develop a functionaland vascularized cardiac patch. The properties, performance and survival of the resultingengineered patch will studied for their in vivo benefit.