Ex vivo model for the study of epicardium-targeted therapies

成人心脏损伤后的恢复能力受到组织内再生细胞数量少的严重限制。心外膜是心脏的最外层，它包含的细胞能够返回受伤的心肌并促进其恢复。可供科学家研究这一现象并制定旨在促进和改进修复过程的策略的模型是有限的，主要基于在动物身上进行的规范程序（手术）。在这个项目中，我们将开发一个基于剩余猪心脏组织的模型，在培养皿中模拟刺激后心外膜的行为。猪的心脏将被切成薄片，包括心外膜和下面的心肌；这些切片将接受治疗，以模拟心脏病的后果，并用已知的治疗物质刺激，以评估我们的系统重现在动物模型中观察到的能力。一旦我们的模型被测试，它将被用于开发利用心外膜修复潜力的新疗法。

The recovery capacity of the adult heart after injury is severely limited by the low number of regenerating cells within this tissue. The epicardium, the most external layer of the heart, contains cells able to home to the injured heart muscle and promote its recovery. The models available to the scientists to study this phenomenon and develop strategies aimed at facilitating and improving the reparative process are limited and mainly based on regulated procedures (surgeries) performed on animals. In this project we will develop a model based on leftover pig heart tissues to mimic in a dish the behaviour of the epicardium after stimulation.Pig hearts will be reduced to thin slices including both the epicardium and underlying heart muscle; the slices will be subjected to treatments to simulate the aftermath of heart disease and stimulated with known therapeutic substances to assess the capacity of our system to reproduce what has been observed in the animal models.Once our model is tested, it will be used to develop new therapies harnessing the reparative potential of the epicardium.