Application of minimally invasive injectable conductive hydrogels as stimulating scaffolds for myocardial tissue engineering

Abstract

So far, several methods for myocardial tissue engineering have been developed to regenerate myocardium and even create contractile heart muscles. Among these approaches, hydrogel based methods have attracted much attention due to their ability to mimic the architecture of native extracellular matrix. Injectable hydrogels are a specific class of hydrogels which can be formed in situ by physical and/or chemical crosslinking. Generally, using these hydrogels is more advantageous because they are minimally (less) invasive in comparison with open surgery. Moreover, with respect to the fact that ‘myocardium is a conductive tissue’, utilization of conductive polymers for myocardial tissue engineering has demonstrated promising results. Both the injectable hydrogels and conductive polymers have some merits and demerits, but studies show that using a combination of them has prominently enhanced regeneration of the myocardium. In this review, the focus is on injectable hydrogels, conductive polymers and injectable conductive hydrogels for myocardial tissue engineering. © 2018 Society of Chemical Industry

Controlled Drug Delivery Systems for Oral Cancer Treatment—Current Status and Future Perspectives

“…Depending on the mechanism used for their gelation, there are two types of hydrogels, physical and chemical. Physical gelation is not inherently permanent, but reversible whereas chemical gelation is reversible because it involves chemical bonds, and thus results in permanent or very stable hydrogels [127,128,129].…”

3D Scaffolds Based on Conductive Polymers for Biomedical Applications

“…38−40 Furthermore, conductive hydrogels may also afford electrical properties permitting their use as bioelectrodes in applications that require interfacing with soft tissues. 41,42 Similar to the conductive porous scaffolds in the previous section, such electrical properties can be incorporated by addition of CPs through polymerization before, after or even at the same time as the gel cross-linking (Figure 3). 43 The processing methodologies employed so far can be considered easy and feasible, using in most cases natural biopolymers, such as chitosan or gelatin, as backbones for the hydrogels.…”

“…During the past decades, hydrogels have received special attention due to their unique and inherent properties. Their highly hydrated nature, together with their flexibility and softness, make them outstanding biomimetic materials for soft tissue applications. − Furthermore, conductive hydrogels may also afford electrical properties permitting their use as bioelectrodes in applications that require interfacing with soft tissues. , Similar to the conductive porous scaffolds in the previous section, such electrical properties can be incorporated by addition of CPs through polymerization before, after or even at the same time as the gel cross-linking (Figure ). …”

Conductive polymers for cardiac tissue engineering and regeneration

“…Injectable hydrogels have been developed and introduced during the past few decades to provide patients with the best level of comfort, shortening recovery time, and reducing post‐operative problems while replicating the structure of the native extracellular matrix 87 . In this context, injectable electroconductive scaffolds are widely sought for cardiac tissue regenerative therapy.…”