Descripción del proyecto
Remendar un corazón roto
El trasplante de corazón es la única opción para los enfermos con insuficiencia cardíaca terminal. Con todo, la escasez de órganos adecuados requiere métodos alternativos para regenerar el corazón enfermo. Los investigadores del proyecto 4DPrintedHeart, financiado con fondos europeos, desarrollaron con anterioridad parches cardíacos impresos en tres dimensiones con vasos sanguíneos, pero su función sigue siendo prematura ya que no pueden bombear sangre. Su objetivo es mejorar estos parches mediante el empleo de métodos de impresión novedosos e identificar los mecanismos subyacentes a la maduración de los tejidos y corazones impresos. Se prevé que los resultados hagan avanzar el campo de la ingeniería de tejidos y revolucionen los trasplantes de corazón.
Objetivo
Heart diseases are a major cause of death in the Western world. No sustainable regenerative therapy is currently available, and cardiac transplantation is the only treatment. However, the scarcity of matching heart donors raises the need to develop new regenerative medicine approaches. Recently, our group has shown the use of patient-specific cells and personalized hydrogels to 3D print vascularized cardiac patches. Moreover, we have developed printing technologies which allowed to print small-scale, cellularized human hearts with the major blood vessels. Despite these and other advances in the field, the premature hearts are very basic, and their ability to pump blood and function in vivo is still considered futuristic, requiring several major breakthroughs. In this proposal, I plan to go far beyond the current state-of-the-art and overcome some of the remaining challenges in the field. We will develop novel 4D printing approaches, allowing to print human cardiac patches and whole functional hearts, including ventricles, atria, pacemakers, conduction system and extensive vasculature, in high resolution. We will decipher the mechanisms underlying the maturation of the printed tissues and hearts, which are essential for the synchronous contraction and heart pumping. Functionality of the printed structures will be compared to that of native cardiac tissues and whole natural hearts by examining their reaction to chronotropic and cardiotoxic drugs, proving their additional potential to serve as reliable, predictive drug testing platforms. The printed tissues and hearts will be then heterotopically transplanted, and their anastomosis with the host blood vessels, contraction and blood pumping capabilities in vivo will be tested. Finally, we will demonstrate the ability of the printed, vascularized cardiac patches to improve heart function. Successful completion of this ambitious project will provide a sustainable regenerative therapy for a myriad of devastating maladies.
Ámbito científico (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS clasifica los proyectos con EuroSciVoc, una taxonomía plurilingüe de ámbitos científicos, mediante un proceso semiautomático basado en técnicas de procesamiento del lenguaje natural.
CORDIS clasifica los proyectos con EuroSciVoc, una taxonomía plurilingüe de ámbitos científicos, mediante un proceso semiautomático basado en técnicas de procesamiento del lenguaje natural.
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Programa(s)
Régimen de financiación
ERC-COG - Consolidator GrantInstitución de acogida
69978 Tel Aviv
Israel