Periodic Reporting for period 2 - NanoBeat (Developing Smart 3D Scaffolds based on Conductive Polymers and Carbon Nanotubes for Cardiac Tissue Engineering)
Période du rapport: 2020-05-01 au 2021-04-30
During the first phase of NanoBeat, we have produced multiple scaffolds with different compositions and studied their suitability as supports to promote cardiac cells adhesion and growth, for subsequent formation of artificial cardiac tissue. As conclusions, we elucidated which composition and, therefore, 3D scaffold has higher potential for growing healthy tissue and future implantation, afterwards.
In the second phase, we synthesized novel formulations of PEDOT with thermoplastic polymers (PLA, PVA and PCL) that were 3D printed into patterned 3D scaffolds. Cultured primary CMs and have proven that such structures are able to reshape CMs and guide them towards a mature cell morphology and functionality: we observed the formation of ECM and large beating tissue, suggesting that our patterned material has huge potential to the formation of artificial healthy tissue for replacing and/or regenerating the damaged heart areas.
In general, the impact expected from the results of NanoBeat is still relevant and undergoes as initially anticipated. The project findings are likely to be significant for the competitiveness and excellence of European research. In the second stage, I was capable to transfer the learned concepts and stablish the cardionanoscience field to Biodonostia HRI, which has not been exploited anywhere and, as initially stated, will have high potential for the cardiomyopathy therapy. The obtained results up do date show that we are in the correct path to move towards to the clinical applications to treat heart diseases and reducing the number of heart transplants worldwide and contributing to the European industrial innovation.
We are now close to obtain an optimal device to treat diseased hearts, which in the long-term will be a promising field for the materials industry for industrial-scale production, thus contributing to European industrial innovation in the nanoscience industry. These are frequent lethal diseases with no current treatment. Therefore, our success means that a large number of patients will benefit from cardiac tissue engineering and have a long live ahead, thus reducing the number of heart transplants.