Biodegradable functional macromolecules as promising scaffolds for cardiac tissue engineering

Abstract

Cardiovascular diseases, the major international health problem and the leading cause of death worldwide have been increasing in recent years due to population aging and lifestyle changes. Loss of cardiac muscle function after myocardial damage is one of the most critical challenges in cardiovascular medicine that has not yet been overcome. Tissue engineering (TE) has emerged as a promising therapeutic approach in modern medicine, targeting the substitution of damaged tissue with functional tissue grown inside an artificial scaffold. Great efforts have been made toward the construction of tissue engineering scaffolds that paved the way for extracellular matrix (ECM)-like biomaterial. In cardiac tissue engineering, key parameters must be determined to select the ideal biomaterial, such as biocompatibility, conductivity, mechanical features, degradation and swelling rate, surface properties, and cell viability, growth and proliferation. Among different scaffolding materials, a wide range of natural biological macromolecules and synthetic macromolecules have been utilized to produce scaffolds with multifunctionality for cardiac tissue engineering (CTE). In this review, we have focused on recent achievements in the field of synthetic biodegradable macromolecules (such as aliphatic polyesters, polyurethane, poly (glycerol sebacate)) and the significant strategies to construct electrically conductive scaffolds to regenerate the function of native cardiac tissue. These biodegradable macromolecules have several attractive properties, including biocompatibility, elasticity, good mechanical properties, compatibility with native cardiac tissue, and proper surface biochemistry to increase cardiac cell adhesion, making them appropriate candidates for CTE. Recently, a growing trend in the use of conductive scaffolds for cardiac regeneration has been witnessed. Different materials ranging from metals, ceramics, and polymers have been used as parts of conductive scaffolds for CTE, possessing conductivity assortments from a range of semiconductive to conductive. Moreover, this review paper also focuses on the main strategies to create electroconductive scaffolds for in vitro cardiac muscle regeneration.

Resorbable conductive materials for optimally interfacing medical devices with the living

“…As a highly stable metal in biological fluids, Pt NPs require a very long time for dissolution-based resorption but can possibly be eliminated by urinary excretion. Because of their high biocompatibility and processability, gold nanoparticles, nanocages, nanorods, and nanowires are extensively studied in tissue engineering applications ( Yadid et al, 2019 ), especially cardiac engineering ( Saghebasl et al, 2022 ). However, they are not bioresorbable, even if very recently, small gold-polymer nanostructures (90 nm size, 4.5% w/w gold) were found to be excretable ( Cassano et al, 2019 ), 4–22 nm-diameter gold nanostructures were also found to be degraded and metabolized by cells by similar pathways than gold ions, but into biopersistent products ( Balfourier et al, 2020 ).…”

“…The PVA-PDA-rGO material displayed self-healing features, and the rGO filler acted both as a mechanical stiffener and electrically conductive particles. rGO was also combined with PCL, PU, PEG, gelatin methacrylate (GelMA), collagen, and chitosan for cardiac ( Saghebasl et al, 2022 ) or neural ( Manousiouthakis et al, 2022 ) tissue engineering. Tringides et al (2021) blended alginate hydrogels with both graphene flakes and carbon nanotubes prior to gelation and freeze drying to obtain macroporous materials.…”

Chitosan-Based Biomaterials for Tissue Regeneration

“…Mokhtari and colleagues (2020) also utilized chitosan composite hydrogels loaded with AuNP and concluded that it was a practical approach to improve degradation resistance and mechanical strength because all the components of hybrid collagen can be mixed by an intermacromolecular Schiff base crosslinking reaction [ 140 ]. Furthermore, a higher concentration of AuNP in chitosan hydrogel resulted in higher expression of connexin-43 protein and improved cardiomyocyte morphology [ 141 ]. In addition to chitosan hydrogels with AuNP, another hybrid hydrogel containing poly-pyrrole-chitosan has also demonstrated its effectiveness in cardiac tissue regeneration.…”

Recent advances in nano‐scaffolds for tissue engineering applications: Toward natural therapeutics

“…Therefore, they are widely considered potential candidates for promoting the regeneration and repair of various tissues such as cartilage, nerve, heart, bone, and muscle. Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) are mainly classified into two categories of nanomaterials, namely, single-walled carbon nanotubes (SW) and multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MW), based on the number of layers of graphene sheets containing cylindrical tubes (Saghebasl et al, 2022). In previous investigations, CNTs have shown promising results in biomedical applications, especially in tissue regeneration.…”