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Injectable gel to heal damaged hearts
Thursday February 23, 2012 08:21:26 AM,
IANS
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Washington: A new injectable hydrogel could safely and effectively heal any damage
caused by heart attacks and help minimise invasive surgeries.
The hydrogel would open a new line of treatment for heart attacks,
with the US alone reporting 785,000 new cases every year, with no
established treatment for repairing the resulting damage to
cardiac tissue.
The hydrogel is made from cardiac connective tissue that is
stripped of heart muscle cells through a cleansing process,
freeze-dried and milled into powder form, and then liquefied into
a fluid that can be easily injected into the heart, the Journal of
the American College of Cardiology reports.
Once it hits body temperature, the liquid turns into a semi-solid,
porous gel that encourages cells to repopulate areas of damaged
cardiac tissue and to preserve heart function, says Karen
Christman, professor of bioengineering at the University of
California, San Diego, who headed the study.
The hydrogel forms a scaffold to repair the tissue and possibly
provides biochemical signals that prevent further deterioration in
the surrounding tissues, according to a California statement.
What is more, the researchers' experiments show that the gel also
can be injected through a catheter, a method that is minimally
invasive and does not require surgery or general anaesthesia.
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