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Updated: Apr 22, 2026
Processing of Human Cardiac Tissue Toward Extracellular Matrix Self-assembling Hydrogel for In Vitro and In Vivo Applications
Published on: December 4, 2017
Vascularisation for cardiac tissue engineering: the extracellular matrix
Chinmoy Patra, Aldo R Boccaccini, Felix B Engel1
1Felix B. Engel, Department of Nephropathology, Institute of Pathology, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, Universitätsstraße 22, 91054 Erlangen, Germany, Tel.: +49 9131 8543635,
Insights
Cardiac tissue engineering offers a solution for heart damage by creating vascularized tissue. This approach addresses the need for thicker cardiac patches, crucial for treating heart diseases in patients.
Area of Science:
- Regenerative Medicine
- Biomedical Engineering
- Cardiovascular Research
Background:
- Cardiovascular diseases cause significant socio-economic burden.
- Loss of cardiomyocytes (heart muscle cells) is irreversible and a key issue in heart diseases.
- Current treatments for significant cardiac tissue loss are limited.
Purpose of the Study:
- To review the challenges and advancements in cardiac tissue engineering, focusing on in vitro vascularization.
- To highlight the importance of non-myocytes and extracellular matrix molecules for functional cardiac tissue.
- To discuss biomaterial-based strategies for creating vascularized cardiac constructs.
Main Methods:
- Review of current literature on cardiac tissue engineering and vascularization.
- Discussion of the role of extracellular matrix components, including nephronectin.
- Analysis of biomaterial-based fabrication techniques: micropatterning, electrospinning, 3D micro-manufacturing, and porogens.
Main Results:
- In vitro vascularization is critical for cardiac patches thicker than 100 µm to prevent necrosis.
- Incorporating non-myocytes and specific extracellular matrix molecules enhances vascularization and tissue function.
- Various biomaterial strategies show promise for engineering functional vascularized cardiac tissue.
Conclusions:
- Cardiac tissue engineering is a viable strategy for treating heart conditions.
- Successful vascularization and integration of non-myocytes are key to functional cardiac patches.
- Advancements in biomaterials and fabrication techniques are paving the way for clinical applications.
Abstract:
Cardiovascular diseases present a major socio-economic burden. One major problem underlying most cardiovascular and congenital heart diseases is the irreversible loss of contractile heart muscle cells, the cardiomyocytes. To reverse damage incurred by myocardial infarction or by surgical correction of cardiac malformations, the loss of cardiac tissue with a thickness of a few millimetres needs to be compensated. A promising approach to this issue is cardiac tissue engineering. In this review we focus on the problem of in vitro vascularisation as implantation of cardiac patches consisting of more than three layers of cardiomyocytes (> 100 µm thick) already results in necrosis. We explain the need for vascularisation and elaborate on the importance to include non-myocytes in order to generate functional vascularised cardiac tissue. We discuss the potential of extracellular matrix molecules in promoting vascularisation and introduce nephronectin as an example of a new promising candidate. Finally, we discuss current biomaterial-based approaches including micropatterning, electrospinning, 3D micro-manufacturing technology and porogens. Collectively, the current literature supports the notion that cardiac tissue engineering is a realistic option for future treatment of paediatric and adult patients with cardiac disease.
