20.109(F11): MLD

WF Team Pink/Purple

• Michelle Fung
• Luis Juarez
• Dorma Flemister

Project Overview

• Fibrin and its uses as scaffold in tissue engineering and gene delivery.
• Curing a Heart Disease through the use of Fibrin scaffolds.

Background Information

Title: Strategies for Tissue Engineering Cardiac Constructs to Affect Functional Repair Following Myocardial Infarction Ye, K. Y., & Black, L. D.,3rd. (2011). Strategies for tissue engineering cardiac constructs to affect functional repair following myocardial infarction. Journal of Cardiovascular Translational Research, 4(5), 575-591.

• http://www.springerlink.com/content/k028661713380485/fulltext.html

Fibrin is an attractive alternative biopolymer for cardiac tissue engineering because:

• it can be easily formed into fibrillar networks, similar to type I collagen
• it can be autologous, since fibrin can be extracted from the patient’s blood, which reduces the chances of the body rejecting the scaffold as a foreign object
• fibrin gel is very bioactive, stimulating the cells
• it has been FDA-approved as a surgical sealant

Title: Fibrin gel – advantages of a new scaffold in cardiovascular tissue engineering

• http://ejcts.ctsnetjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/19/4/424

The field of tissue engineering deals with the creation of tissue structures based on patient cells. The scaffold plays a central role in the creation of 3-D structures in cardiovascular tissue engineering like small vessels or heart valve prosthesis. An ideal scaffold should have tissue-like mechanical properties and a complete immunologic integrity. As an alternative scaffold the use of fibrin gel was investigated.

• Yuan Ye, K., Sullivan, K. E., & Black, L. D. (2011). Encapsulation of cardiomyocytes in a fibrin hydrogel for cardiac tissue engineering. Journal of Visualized Experiments : JoVE, (55). pii: 3251. doi(55), 10.3791/3251.

Cardiomyocytes were cultured in a three dimensional hydrogel and studied Fibrin is a naturally occurring blood clotting protein. The paper describes the isolation of neonatal cardiomyocytes form three day old rat pups and their preparation for encapsulation in the fibrin gel constructs. Immunohistological staining was performed to examine the expression and morphology of some essential proteins.

• Barsotti, M. C., Felice, F., Balbarini, A., & Di Stefano, R. (2011). Fibrin as a scaffold for cardiac tissue engineering. Biotechnology and Applied Biochemistry, 58(5), 301-310.

This review shows some cardiac bioengineering uses of fibrin as a cell delivery vehicle and as an implantable biomaterial. Fibrin is great to be used since it is a natural biopolymer that has properties like biocompatibility, ease of processing, and a potential for incorporation of cells and cell mediators. Fibrin has found many applications in tissue engineering because it can be combined with cells, growth factors, or drugs.

Tissue Engineering Strategies for Cardiac Regeneration

• Amandine F. G. Godier-Furnémont, Yi Duan, Robert Maidhof and Gordana Vunjak-Novakovic
• http://www.springerlink.com/content/t60q875248r8w377/fulltext.html

"Functional vascularization – with the establishment of blood supply – remains a major unsolved problem of cardiac tissue engineering, and tissue engineering in general. Several different approaches are currently under investigation, ranging from the engineering of prevascularized tissues with capability for connection to the blood supply of the host, to the induction of vascularization by host cells using bioactive materials"

Research Ideas on Problem and Goals

• Identify a currently unsolved problem for fibrin as scaffold for use to treat cardiac disease and try to fix it.

Project Details and Methods

• Immunofluorescence

Predicted Outcomes

• If all goes well, we’ll have increased efficacy in Cardiac Cell Therapy
• If nothing goes well, we’ll end up knowing more potential uses of Fibrin, and more of its properties for use in Tissue Engineering.

Necessary Resources

• $$
• Cells, materials, knowledge of assays
• Eventually animal trials (Heart Surgeons)
• Eventually Human trials (more $)