Highly Elastic Micropatterned Hydrogel for Engineering Functional Cardiac Tissue.

ABSTRACT: Heart failure is a major international health issue. Myocardial mass loss and lack of contractility are precursors to heart failure. Surgical demand for effective myocardial repair is tempered by a paucity of appropriate biological materials. These materials should conveniently replicate natural human tissue components, convey persistent elasticity, promote cell attachment, growth and conformability to direct cell orientation and functional performance. Here, microfabrication techniques are applied to recombinant human tropoelastin, the resilience-imparting protein found in all elastic human tissues, to generate photocrosslinked biological materials containing well-defined micropatterns. These highly elastic substrates are then used to engineer biomimetic cardiac tissue constructs. The mic

SUBMITTER: Annabi N 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3850066 | biostudies-literature | 2013 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature