Findings of a study published in STEM CELLS Translational Medicine demonstrate the promise in regenerating cardiac tissue using engineered patches made up of a mixture of fibrin and mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) derived from human umbilical cord blood.
Previous studies show the potential of MSCs to repair damage left by a heart attack, but in these instances, the cells were delivered through injections or intravenously. According to Antoni Bayes-Genis, a lead investigator on this study, “while feasible and safe, the treatments exhibited only modest benefits.”
Researchers think there might be a better way to deliver the MSCs to the injured site. Scaffolds (or patches) in which the cells are combined with biological and synthetic materials that can also be supplemented with growth/differentiation factors to generate bioimplants, have emerged as a promising candidate. However, none of the current materials being tested for the patches, whether synthetic or natural, have demonstrated optimal properties for cardiac tissue repair.
Dr. Bayes-Genis and his colleagues investigated how a fibrin patch filled with human umbilical cord blood-derived MSCs might work. The team mixed MSCs and fibrin to form the patches and then administered them in a group of mice that had undergone heart attacks. Three weeks later, they compared the animals’ recovery to a control group of mice treated with fibrin alone (no stem cells) and another control group that received no treatment at all. The results showed that the patches adhered well to the hearts and the MSCs demonstrated early proliferation and differentiation. The patch cells also participated in the formation of new, functional blood vessels that connected the patch to both the heart tissue directly beneath it and the mouse’s circulatory system, too.
“As a result, the heart function in this group of mice was better than that of the animals in either of the other control groups,” Dr. Bayes-Genis said. “Thus, this study provides promising findings for the use of umbilical cord-blood MSCs and fibrin patches in cardiac repair.”
