Cardiac-Adaptive Conductive Hydrogel Patch Enabling Construction of Mechanical-Electrical Anisotropic Microenvironment for Heart Repair

Xiaoping Song; Jifeng Zhang; Si Shen; Dan Liu; Jie Zhang; Wenming Yin; Genlan Ye; Leyu Wang; Liu Cai; Honghao Hou; Xiaozhong Qiu

doi:10.34133/research.0161

Cardiac-Adaptive Conductive Hydrogel Patch Enabling Construction of Mechanical-Electrical Anisotropic Microenvironment for Heart Repair

Research (Wash D C). 2023 Jun 8:6:0161. doi: 10.34133/research.0161. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Xiaoping Song¹, Jifeng Zhang², Si Shen³, Dan Liu³, Jie Zhang³, Wenming Yin³, Genlan Ye¹, Leyu Wang³, Liu Cai³, Honghao Hou³, Xiaozhong Qiu¹

Affiliations

¹ Central Laboratory, The Fifth Affiliated Hospital, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, Guangdong 510910, China.
² Department of Anatomy, Neuroscience Laboratory for Cognitive and Developmental Disorders, Medical College of Jinan University, Guangzhou 510630, China.
³ Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Construction and Detection in Tissue Engineering, School of Basic Medical Science; Biomaterials Research Center, School of Biomedical Engineering, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, Guangdong 510515, China.

Abstract

The biomimetic construction of a microstructural-mechanical-electrical anisotropic microenvironment adaptive to the native cardiac tissue is essential to repair myocardial infarction (MI). Inspired by the 3D anisotropic characteristic of the natural fish swim bladder (FSB), a novel flexible, anisotropic, and conductive hydrogel was developed for tissue-specific adaptation to the anisotropic structural, conductive, and mechanical features of the native cardiac extracellular matrix. The results revealed that the originally stiff, homogeneous FSB film was tailored to a highly flexible anisotropic hydrogel, enabling its potential as a functional engineered cardiac patch (ECP). In vitro and in vivo experiments demonstrated the enhanced electrophysiological activity, maturation, elongation, and orientation of cardiomyocytes (CMs), and marked MI repair performance with reduced CM apoptosis and myocardial fibrosis, thereby promoting cell retention, myogenesis, and vascularization, as well as improving electrical integration. Our findings offer a potential strategy for functional ECP and provides a novel strategy to bionically simulate the complex cardiac repair environment.