NanoBeat · Developing Smart 3D Scaffolds based on Conductive Polymers and Carbon Nanotubes for Cardiac Tissue Engineering
Horizon 2020 — Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions
- Duration
- 2018-05-01 → 2021-04-30
- EU contribution
- €257,191
- Participants
- 2
- Scheme
- MSCA-IF-GF
Lines connect the coordinator with its partners.
Results in brief
Developing Smart 3D Scaffolds based on Conductive Polymers and Carbon Nanotubes for Cardiac Tissue Engineering
Diseases of the heart and circulatory system are the largest single cause of death in the European Union, accounting for about the 30% of deaths, as well as being responsible for the largest number of premature deaths before the age of 75 years. These diseases cause heart enlargement, heart failure and, unfortunately, there is no current no effective treatments. The focus of this reserch is to treat the diseased heart muscle: myocardial infarction, which generates muscle damage and necrosis; cardiomyopathies, which affect 1 each 500 people and are a leading cause of sudden death particularly among young people and athletes; and rare neurodegenerative diseases that cause muscular dystrophy, as the Duchenne muscular distrophy (DMD) that affects 1 in every 3500-5000 kids and causes death at 20-30 years old. Once damaged, cardiac muscle has little intrinsic repair ability due to the poor regeneration potential of remaining healthy cardiomyocytes. The final aim of this research is to develop find a suitable hydrogel or conductive scaffold able to support cardiomyocyte differentiation and generate functional artificial cardiac tissue.
Data: CORDIS, © European Union
Project objective
Conductive polymers (CP) appear as promising stimulus-responsing electroactive biomaterial for profileration of cells. CP are versatile materials that can be synthesized in different shapes and morphologies, offering a wide range of application in biosensing, implants, drug delivery and tissue engineering. Carbon Nanotubes (CNTs) have become promising advanced materials and gained increasing importance for applications in nanomedicine, such as diagnosis, disease treatment, imaging, and tissue engineering. CNTs can interact with cells, cross the biological barriers, and modify their functions and biology. More recently, CNTs have become a new tool to specifically interact with the central nervous systems and support tissue repair after brain damage. Take into account of such findings, we hypothesize that CNTs exert functional effects on networks of cardiac myocytes and, in addition, the combination of those two materials will generate an outstanding scaffold for other electroactive cell growth, such as cardiac cells. In my current research, I have developed 3D scaffolds of CNT with a CP skeleton (polypyrrole or PEDOT) and aftewards, the goal of my research and thus the aim of the current proposal is to test such scaffolds for cardiac tissue regeneration. More specific aims are: 1) Adapt already developed smart “scaffold-matrix supports” for heart tissue engineering and test its viability, comprising CNT and conductive polymers.2) In vitro and in vivo studies of healthy and genetically modified cardiomyocites (CM) of neonatal and adult rat hearts to determine the interactions between cells and the smart scaffolds and demonstrate that such devices promote heart cell growth and change their electrical properties.3) Test other carbon nanomaterial scaffolds generated in the host group as supports for cardiac tissue engineering.
Original text from CORDIS.
Participants
- UNIVERSIDAD DEL PAIS VASCO/ EUSKAL HERRIKO UNIBERTSITATEA · LeioaCoordinatorSpain
- REGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO · Boulder CoUnited States
Links
- View on CORDIS
- DOI: 10.3030/753293
- https://www.ehu.eus/eu/web/polymat/polymerization-processes-projects
Data: CORDIS, © European Union