Biomaterials for Treating Myocardial Infarctions

Biomaterials are gaining attention in the development of biomedical therapies for treating patients after a myocardial infarction (i.e., heart attack). These materials may act as mechanical restraints, vehicles for the delivery of therapeutics, or as 3-dimensional scaffolds for tissue regeneration. This overview will focus on one particular class of materials, namely injectable hydrogels (water-swollen polymer networks). Injectable hydrogels, including both natural and synthetic, are a promising therapy to attenuate ventricular remodeling after myocardial infarction by acting as acellular bulking agents to mechanically stabilize the myocardium and as delivery vehicles for cells and/or therapeutic molecules. Various materials, cells, and therapeutic molecules have demonstrated positive outcomes in the repair of cardiac tissue after infarction and provide insight for future material development and optimization. Further development of injectable hydrogels for cardiac repair will have considerable clinical impact wit