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Updated: Jul 30, 2025
An Injectable and Drug-loaded Supramolecular Hydrogel for Local Catheter Injection into the Pig Heart
Published on: June 7, 2015
Therapeutic angiogenesis based on injectable hydrogel for protein delivery in ischemic heart disease
Junke Wang1,2, Yancheng Song3, Wenjie Xie4
1Department of Cardiology, The Affiliated Hospital of Qingdao University, Qingdao, Shandong 26000, China.
Insights
Therapeutic angiogenesis using hydrogels offers a novel treatment for ischemic heart disease (IHD). This approach enables controlled delivery of growth factors to promote new blood vessel formation, overcoming limitations of traditional therapies.
Area of Science:
- Biomedical Engineering
- Cardiovascular Research
- Regenerative Medicine
Background:
- Ischemic heart disease (IHD) is a major cause of mortality, leading to heart failure.
- Current treatments are unsuitable for some patients with severe coronary artery disease.
- Therapeutic angiogenesis aims to restore blood supply by stimulating new vessel growth.
Purpose of the Study:
- To review the mechanism of angiogenesis and bioactive molecules for IHD treatment.
- To explore the application of hydrogels for controlled delivery of growth factors.
- To discuss challenges and solutions for clinical translation of therapeutic angiogenesis in IHD.
Main Methods:
- Review of scientific literature on angiogenesis mechanisms and bioactive molecules.
- Analysis of natural and synthetic hydrogel applications in growth factor delivery.
- Discussion of current challenges and future directions for therapeutic angiogenesis in IHD.
Main Results:
- Hydrogels provide temporally and spatially controlled delivery of growth factors, mimicking *in vivo* angiogenesis.
- This controlled delivery overcomes issues of short half-life and systemic side effects associated with direct growth factor injection.
- Various natural and synthetic hydrogels are being investigated for treating IHD.
Conclusions:
- Hydrogel-based delivery systems represent a promising strategy for therapeutic angiogenesis in IHD.
- Addressing current challenges is crucial for the clinical translation of these advanced treatments.
- Controlled delivery of angiogenic factors via hydrogels offers a potential new therapeutic avenue for heart failure patients.
Abstract:
Ischemic heart disease (IHD) remains the leading cause of death and disability worldwide and leads to myocardial necrosis and negative myocardial remodeling, ultimately leading to heart failure. Current treatments include drug therapy, interventional therapy, and surgery. However, some patients with severe diffuse coronary artery disease, complex coronary artery anatomy, and other reasons are unsuitable for these treatments. Therapeutic angiogenesis stimulates the growth of the original blood vessels by using exogenous growth factors to generate more new blood vessels, which provides a new treatment for IHD. However, direct injection of these growth factors can cause a short half-life and serious side effects owing to systemic spread. Therefore, to overcome this problem, hydrogels have been developed for temporally and spatially controlled delivery of single or multiple growth factors to mimic the process of angiogenesis in vivo. This paper reviews the mechanism of angiogenesis, some important bioactive molecules, and natural and synthetic hydrogels currently being applied for bioactive molecule delivery to treat IHD. Furthermore, the current challenges of therapeutic angiogenesis in IHD and its potential solutions are discussed to facilitate real translation into clinical applications in the future.
