Biomaterial property-controlled stem cell fates for cardiac regeneration

Myocardial infarction (MI) affects more than 8 million people in the United States alone. Due to theinsufficient regeneration capacity of the native myocardium, one widely studied approach is cardiactissue engineering, in which cells are delivered with or without biomaterials and/or regulatory factors tofully regenerate the cardiac functions. Specifically, in vitro cardiac tissue engineering focuses on usingbiomaterials as a reservoir for cells to attach, as well as a carrier of various regulatory factors such asgrowth factors and peptides, providing high cell retention and a proper microenvironment for cells tomigrate, grow and differentiate within the scaffolds before implantation. Many studies have shown thatthe full establishment of a functional cardiac tissue in vitro requires synergistic actions between theseeded cells, the tissue culture condition, and the biochemical and biophysical environment provided bythe biomaterials-based scaffolds. Proper electrical stimulation and mechanical stretch during the in vitroculture can induce the ordered orientation and differentiation of the seeded cells. On the other hand, thevarious scaffolds biochemical and biophysical properties such as polymer composition, ligand concentration,biodegradability, scaffold topography and mechanical properties can also have a significant effecton the cellular processes.