Degradable Cardiac Patch with Immuno-modulatory function

心血管疾病（CVD）是世界上主要的死亡原因。具体而言，2012年，CVD导致全球约1750万人死亡，加拿大62，000人死亡，加拿大经济损失超过212亿美元。心肌梗死或心脏病发作是心血管病相关死亡的主要原因，由于心脏再生能力有限，导致不可逆的心肌损伤。这可能最终导致终末期心力衰竭，目前使用心脏移植和心室辅助装置（VAD）进行治疗。然而，供体器官的短缺以及VAD的高成本和它们缺乏对所有患者类型的长期适用性是这些标准治疗的显著限制。组织工程和心脏组织的开发已成为修复和替代受损心肌和预防终末期心力衰竭的一种很有前途的方法。在这个项目中，利用Santerre实验室的生物材料专业知识和Bendeck实验室的心血管生物学专业知识，（都在多伦多大学）和大学医院网络的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，使用一种生物材料平台，已被证明可以调节植入后的早期免疫反应，将与心脏细胞结合，这些细胞将来源于脂肪干细胞，以开发一种功能性的、血管化的心脏补片。将研究所得到的工程化补片的性质、性能和存活率，以了解其在体内的益处。

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.