Cardiospheres and tissue engineering for myocardial regeneration: potential for clinical application

Abstract

Tissue engineering is an increasingly expanding area of research in the cardiovascular field that involves engineering, chemistry, biology and medicine. Cardiac tissue engineering (CTE) aims to regenerate myocardial damage by combining cells, matrix, biological active molecules and physiological stimuli. The rationale behind CTE applications is that in order to regenerate the ventricular wall after a myocardial infarction it is necessary to combine procedures that regenerate both cardiomyocytes and the extracellular matrix. The application of (stem) cells together with a matrix could represent an environment protected from the inflammatory and pro-apoptotic signals, a stemness/survival reservoir slowly releasing cells and factors promoting tissue regeneration and angiogenesis. This review will focus on the applications and advantages that CTE application could offer compared to conventional cell therapy.

Fig 1

Cardiospheres cultivated in collagen or gelatine scaffold. (a) CSps pre-labelled with the fluorescent vital, seeded in collagen (a1 and a2) or gelatine (a3 and a4) matrix and cultivated for 1 week; (b) scanning electron microscope analysis of CSps in collagen and gelatine scaffolds; (c) RT-PCR analysis of CSps cultivated in the matrices.