Biomedical engineers grow cardiac patches to help people recover from heart attacks

A team led by Feng Zhao, associate professor of biomedical engineering at Michigan Technological University, recently published two new papers on best practices in engineering prevascularized tissues. The team's research paper, published in Theranostics, focuses on developing a stem cell cardiac patch made with tissue engineered with tiny blood vessels to be like real heart muscled. Their review paper published in Acta Biomaterialia examines the pros and cons of six innovative strategies for aligning the microvessels in engineered tissues.
The vascular system brings nutrients and oxygen to tissues; important ingredients for successful healing following an organ transplant, heart surgery or skin graft. Microvascular structures, which are capillary-like microvessels, are particularly important and, in order to be effective, must be highly aligned, dense and mature. Engineering biomaterials with such a robust vascular system are difficult and depend on the framework - the scaffold - to grow the cells.