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Updated: Dec 28, 2025
Intramyocardial Transplantation of MSC-Loading Injectable Hydrogels after Myocardial Infarction in a Murine Model
Published on: September 20, 2020
Environmentally responsive hydrogels for repair of cardiovascular tissue
Shuaimeng Guan1, Jiankang Li1, Kun Zhang2
1School of Life Science, Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou, 450000, People's Republic of China.
Insights
Environmentally responsive hydrogels offer a promising solution for cardiovascular diseases (CVDs). These advanced materials improve therapeutic delivery and tissue repair for conditions like myocardial infarction and heart failure.
Area of Science:
- Biomaterials Science
- Regenerative Medicine
- Cardiovascular Research
Background:
- Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) present a significant global health challenge, marked by high morbidity and mortality.
- Current treatments like stem cell therapy face limitations such as low survival rates and cell loss at injury sites.
- Hydrogel scaffolds, particularly environmentally responsive ones, are emerging as innovative solutions for cardiovascular repair.
Purpose of the Study:
- To review the current landscape of cardiovascular disease (CVD) occurrence and treatments.
- To explore the application of environmentally responsive hydrogels in cardiovascular tissue repair and regeneration.
- To highlight the potential of these hydrogels in controlled drug and cell delivery for vascular repair.
Main Methods:
- Review of existing literature on CVD, current therapeutic strategies, and hydrogel scaffold applications.
- Focus on environmentally responsive hydrogels for controlled release of therapeutics (growth factors, stem cells).
- Analysis of hydrogel-based approaches for revascularization and cardiovascular tissue engineering.
Main Results:
- Environmentally responsive hydrogels show significant potential in repairing the cardiovascular microenvironment.
- These hydrogels enable precise, space-time controlled release of therapeutic agents, enhancing treatment efficacy.
- Applications in growth factor delivery and cell therapy demonstrate promise for vascular regeneration.
Conclusions:
- Environmentally responsive hydrogels represent a breakthrough in treating cardiovascular diseases.
- Their ability to modulate the local environment and deliver therapeutics offers new avenues for cardiovascular repair.
- Further research into these advanced materials holds immense potential for personalized cardiovascular medicine.
Abstract:
Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) pose a serious threat to human health, which are characterized by high disability and mortality rate globally such as myocardial infarction (MI), atherosclerosis, and heart failure. Although stem cells transplantation and growth factors therapy are promising, their low survival rate and loss at the site of injury are major obstacles to this therapy. Recently, the development of hydrogel scaffold materials provides a new way to solve this problem, which have shown the potential to treat CVD. Among these scaffold materials, environmentally responsive hydrogels have great prospects in repairing the microenvironment of cardiovascular tissues and vascular regeneration. They provide a new method for the treatment of cardiovascular tissue repair and space-time control for the release of various therapeutic drugs, including small-molecule drugs, growth factors, and stem cells. Herein, this article reviews the occurrence and current treatment of CVD, as well as the repair of cardiovascular injury by several environmental responsive hydrogels systems currently used, mainly focusing on the delivery of growth factors or the application of cell therapy to revascularization. In addition, we will also discuss the enormous potential and personal perspectives of environmentally responsive hydrogels in cardiovascular repair.
