Hydrogel platforms for 3D cardiac tissue engineering and fibrotic disease modelling

Tissue engineering offers significant potential to advance the understanding and treatment of cardiac disease by generating in vitro models that recapitulate myocardial physiology in both healthy and diseased states. Specifically, hydrogel-based systems have been widely employed to engineer 3D cardiac tissues due to their ability to support cell viability and mimic aspects of the extracellular matrix. However, conventional hydrogels are inherently isotropic and electrically insulating, limiting their capacity to reproduce the anisotropic structure and conductive properties of native myocardium. To address these limitations, increasingly sophisticated hydrogel platforms have been developed that incorporate conductive, piezoelectric and/or aligned architectures to enhance electrical coupling, guide tissue organisation and promote cardiomyocyte maturation. These hydrogel-based systems can also be tuned to recapitulate pathological states. Cardiac fibrosis is characterised by increased tissue stiffness, and researchers have sought to model this process by modulating the mechanical microenvironment to induce fibrotic phenotypes. With recently developed hydrogel platforms, mechanical properties can be controlled with both spatial and temporal precision, enabling systematic investigation of how dynamic and heterogeneous stiffness influences tissue formation, remodelling and disease progression. Although these platforms are not yet fully translational, they provide powerful tools to modulate multiple physiological parameters, thereby advancing our understanding of cardiac development and informing strategies to treat prevalent pathological conditions.