Sci. Transl. Med. 12, eaat9683 (2020)
An off-the-shelf synthetic cardiac patch promotes cardiac recovery in a rat model of acute myocardial infarction.
Myocardial infarction frequently leads to permanent arrhythmias and heart failure due to the remodeling process after these events. Cell therapy has been proposed as a means whereby more permanent damage could be avoided; however, it suffers from drawbacks such as cells being ‘washed away’ by the beating heart, immune incompatibility and high expense.
Huang et al. fabricated an artificial cardiac patch made of a porcine extracellular-matrix scaffold and synthetic cardiac stromal cells, which are encapsulated secreted human cardiac cellular factors. The patch withstood cryopreservation and supported cardiac recovery in a rat model of myocardial infarction. The cell-based patch thus shows promise for clinical translation.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Stower, H. Patching up hearts. Nat Med 26, 649 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-020-0904-6
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-020-0904-6