Development of a cardiac patch based on a bilayer, conductive, biomimetic, polymeric scaffold

心血管疾病最终导致心力衰竭，是世界范围内主要的死亡原因之一，目前一年的死亡率超过25%。心力衰竭的五年死亡率在肿瘤疾病的死亡率范围内。急性心力衰竭的预后仍然很差，尽管在新疗法上投入了大量资金，但仍未得到改善。因此，进一步改进慢性心力衰竭的治疗方法是很重要的。心脏组织工程有望创造出结合生物材料支架、细胞和生长因子的功能性组织替代物，用于治疗心力衰竭。尽管心脏组织工程已被越来越多地认为是一种可行的治疗选择，但用于体外构建心脏组织工程的理想支架尚未出现。因此，本项目的目标是开发一种双层、导电、仿生、可用于心脏补片工程的聚合物支架。最终目标是可移植的组织，可以取代患者的患病组织。双层支架将被设计成模拟天然心脏ECM的各向异性结构和机械性能，提供接触引导，并为开发功能心脏构造提供电活性表面

Cardiovascular diseases eventually resulting in heart failure are among the leading causes of death worldwide with a one-year mortality of presently greater than 25%. The five-year mortality of heart failure is in the range of the mortality of tumor diseases. The prognosis of acute heart failure is still poor and remains unimproved despite major investment in novel therapies. Thus, it is important to further improve therapies for chronic heart failure. Cardiac tissue engineering offers the promise of creating functional tissue replacements combining biomaterial scaffolds, cells and growth factors for treating heart failure. Although cardiac tissue engineering has increasingly been recognized as a viable therapeutic option, an ideal scaffold for engineering cardiac tissue in vitro has not yet materialized. Therefore, the goal of this project is to develop a Bilayer, Conductive, Biomimetic, Polymeric Scaffold, which can be used for the engineering of a cardiac patch. The ultimate goal is transplantable tissue that can replace diseased tissue in patients. The Bilayer Scaffold will be designed to mimic the anisotropic structure and mechanical properties of the native cardiac ECM, provide contact guidance, and an electroactive surface for the development of a functional cardiac construct