Can a new biomaterial help stem cells repair heart tissue?

Epicardial placement of stem cells for Mending Broken Hearts

In heart failure, the heart cannot pump blood around the body as well as it should and people become extremely tired and short of breath. In severe cases of heart failure, the only treatment option is a heart transplant. Heart failure usually occurs after the heart muscle becomes damaged, such as after a heart attack, and there is currently no cure, so we urgently need to improve the outlook for people with this condition. Stem cell therapy is emerging as a new way to treat heart failure – when injected into the heart in animal models, stem cells can replace the damaged tissue. But their effectiveness is limited because most stem cells die shortly after they are injected into the heart. Professor Ken Suzuki and his team at Queen Mary, University of London have recently developed a novel technology to deliver stem cells to the heart more effectively and safely using an innovative biomaterial called a hydrogel. They found it improves the survival of transplanted stem cells and significantly boosts their therapeutic effectiveness in heart failure in the laboratory, compared to current cell delivery methods. The BHF have now awarded the team a grant to test this biomaterial with two different types of stem cells, and evaluate it in experimental heart failure models in rats. First, they will complete pre-clinical studies of ‘universal’ stem cells called allogeneic mesenchymal stromal cells. Secondly, they will test the hydrogel biomaterial with embryonic and induced pluripotent stem cells – or ‘master’ stem cells. They will introduce these cells into damaged heart muscle and find out if they repair the damage. If successful, this research could pave the way for a first-in-man clinical trial of this hydrogel biomaterial. Ultimately, stem cell therapy could become a reality for people with heart failure, offering them hope of a cure.