Hydrogel-based cardiac patches for myocardial infarction therapy: Recent advances and challenges

Evidence from laboratory and animal studies provides groundwork for understanding mechanisms and potential before human studies continue.

• Level A · Stronger Clinical Evidence
• Level B · Emerging clinical evidence with positive signals
• Level C · Early human research exploring benefits
• Level D · Scientific groundwork from lab and animal studies
• Emerging · Emerging topic under active research

Abstract (original English)

Myocardial infarction (MI) remains the leading cause of death related to cardiovascular diseases globally, presenting a significant clinical challenge due to the specificity of the lesion site and the limited proliferative capacity of cardiomyocytes (CMs) for repairing the infarcted myocardium. Extensive studies reported so far has focused on the utilization of hydrogel-based cardiac patches for MI treatment, highlighting their promising mechanical properties, conductivity, and ability to remodel the microenvironment post-repair. However, the majority of developed cardiac patches have been limited to the myocardial tissue surface via suturing or adhesive administration. Suturing inevitably leads to additional damage to the fragile myocardium, while uneven application of adhesives may result in patch displacement and compromised drug release. Based on these critical issues, we systematically summarize the advantages and drawbacks of using hydrogel patches for MI treatment with emphasis on elucidating various design strategies. Specifically, we first describe the changes in the pathological microenvironment following MI. Next, we discuss the biomimetic types of hydrogel patches, their functional design, and corresponding strategies for microenvironment adaptation, emphasizing adhesion mechanisms, wet adhesion design strategies, and fabrication techniques for hydrogel patches. Fin

Evidence level

Evidence from laboratory and animal studies provides groundwork for understanding mechanisms and potential before human studies continue.

Browse all related research

Filter the research library by this study's title keywords, author, or publication year.