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Theranostics 2020; 10(5):2047-2066. doi:10.7150/thno.38876 This issue Cite

Research Paper

Mussel-inspired conductive Ti₂C-cryogel promotes functional maturation of cardiomyocytes and enhances repair of myocardial infarction

Genlan Ye^1,3#, Zubiao Wen^2#, Feng Wen¹, Xiaoping Song¹, Leyu Wang¹, Chuangkun Li¹, Yutong He^1,3, Sugandha Prakash¹, Xiaozhong Qiu^1✉

1. Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Construction and Detection in Tissue Engineering, School of Basic Medical Science, Biomaterials Research Center, School of Biomedical Engineering, Southern Medical University, Guangdong, Guangzhou 510515, China
2. College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Jiangxi Normal University, Nanchang 330022, China
3. Guangzhou Regenerative Medicine and Health Guangdong Laboratory, Guangzhou 510005, China
^# These authors contributed equally to this work.

✉ Corresponding author: Prof. Xiaozhong Qiu, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Construction and Detection in Tissue Engineering, School of Basic Medical Science, Southern Medical University, Guangdong, Guangzhou 510515, China. Email address: qqiuxzhcom; Telephone number: 86-20-61648401 More

Abstract

Rationale: Researches on conductive engineering cardiac patch (ECP) for myocardial infarction (MI) treatment have achieved some progress in the animal while the availability of traditional conductive materials in ECP is still limited because of their controversial cytotoxicity. Here we aim to introduce a novel hydrophilic biocompatible conductive material: MXene Ti₂C and mussel-inspired dopamine into PEGDA-GelMA cryogel to construct a bio-functional ECP of which the property closes to natural heart for the repair of MI.

Method: MXene Ti₂C was etched from MAX Ti₂AlC, then uniformly dispersed into the prepolymer composed with dopamine-N′, N′-methylene-bisacrylamide, methacrylate-gelatin, and poly (ethylene glycol) diacrylate by simple water bath sonication. The resilient conductive Ti₂C-cryogel was fabricated by chemical cryogelation. The conductive ECP was evaluated in vitro and transplanted to the MI rat model for MI treatment.

Results: In vitro, the 3D vessels-shape framework was observed in Ti₂C-8-cryogel which was seeded with rats aortic endothelial cells. When the Ti₂C-cryogels were cocultured with CMs, remarkably aligned sarcomere and the primitive intercalated disc between the mature CMs were formed on day 7. The as-prepared Ti₂C-8-cryogel ECP also demonstrated rapid calcium transients and synchronous tissue-like beating. When transplanted into the infarcted heart of the MI rat model, the Ti₂C-8-cryogel ECP could improve the cardiac function, reduce the infarct size, and inhibit the inflammatory response. Obvious vasculation especially newly formed arteriole was also found.

Conclusion: A novel conductive Ti₂C-embedded cardiac patch with suitable conductivity and the mechanical property was developed and could be served as an ideal candidate for MI repair.

Keywords: MXene Ti₂C, dopamine, conductive cryogels, vasculation, myocardial infarction

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