Regenerative biomaterial patches for failing hearts

再生医学已被确立为修复和恢复组织功能的一种强有力的方法，并促进了包括干细胞输送在内的医疗程序和保健技术新时代的发展。然而，由于细胞递送方法不佳，导致细胞快速死亡或与修复的靶组织植入不良，许多这些技术未能进入临床。为了改善临床结果，生物材料的开发旨在以持续和局部的方式控制细胞递送。然而，目前正在研究的生物材料不能附着在目标组织上，依靠缝合线将它们固定在适当的位置，这会导致进一步的组织损伤和炎症。此外，机械要求苛刻的环境，如跳动的心脏，要求生物材料是坚固的，能够符合组织的动态性质。例如，心肌梗死可导致10亿心肌细胞死亡，将细胞输送到梗死心脏是一种新兴的治疗患病心脏组织的方法。然而，由于缺乏先进的细胞递送方法，这些治疗的效果受到限制。本研究的总体目标是通过使用先进的生物材料作为细胞递送载体，改善与再生细胞为基础的治疗相关的临床结果。该项目旨在通过黏附的水凝胶贴片将心脏细胞输送到病变组织，为再生医学提供先进的生物材料。这种方法将在生物材料、再生医学、药物输送、医疗设备和组织工程等领域提供机会并产生重大影响。将开发用于递送细胞的特定生物材料是水凝胶，这是一种高含水量的肿胀凝胶。水凝胶是一种非常理想的包裹细胞的材料，因为它们可以被合成来模拟自然组织，从而增加这些系统的生物相容性。此外，水凝胶可以向被包裹的细胞提供信息，以在递送到目标病变组织之前促进组织特异性细胞分化。本研究中开发的水凝胶具有高度的可拉伸性，因此它们可以在物理要求苛刻的环境中部署，并且组织粘合剂可以使被封装的细胞与组织表面紧密结合并更有效地传递。这项研究的结果将为再生医学开辟新的机会，因为这些水凝胶可以显著提高细胞治疗的效率，改进我们的治疗方法和对病变组织的理解，并将创新的细胞负载生物材料作为再生医疗设备引入临床。

Regenerative medicine has been established as a powerful approach to repair and restore tissue function and has facilitated the development of a new era of medical procedures and healthcare technologies including the delivery of stem cells. However, many of these technologies have failed to reach the clinic due to poor methods of cell delivery which lead to rapid cell death or poor engraftment with the target tissues intended for repair. To improve clinical outcomes, biomaterials have been developed with the aim to control cell delivery in sustained and localised manner. However, biomaterials currently under investigation are not able to adhere to target tissues and rely on sutures to hold them in place which induces further tissue damage and inflammation. Furthermore, a mechanical demanding environment such as beating heart requires the biomaterial to be robust and able to conform to the dynamic nature of the tissue. For example, myocardial infarction can lead to the death of 1 billion cardiomyoctes and cell-delivery to infarcted hearts is an emerging therapy to heal the diseased cardiac tissue. However, the efficacy of these treatments has been limited due to the lack of advanced cell-delivery methods.The overall goal of this research is to improve clinical outcomes associated with regenerative cell-based therapies by using advanced biomaterials as cell-delivery vehicles. This project aims to provide advanced biomaterials for regenerative medicine by delivering cardiac cells to diseased tissue via adhesive hydrogel patches. Such an approach would provide opportunities and have significant impact in fields such as biomaterials, regenerative medicine, drug delivery, medical devices and tissue engineering.The specific biomaterials that will be developed to deliver cells are hydrogels which are high-water content swollen gels. Hydrogels are a highly desirable class of materials to encapsulate cells as they can be synthesised to mimic natural tissues which increases the biocompatibility of these systems. Furthermore, the hydrogels can provide information to the encapsulated cells to encourage tissue-specific cell differentiation prior to delivery to the target diseased tissue.The hydrogels developed in this research are highly stretchable, so they can be deployed in physical demanding environments, and tissue adhesive which allows the encapsulated cells to closely interface with the tissue surface and be delivered more efficiently.The outcomes of this research would open up new opportunities for regenerative medicine as these hydrogels could significantly increase the efficiency of cell-based therapies, improve our treatment methods and understanding of diseased tissues and introduce innovative cell-laden biomaterials to the clinic as regenerative medical devices.