Engineered Cardiac Tissues for Delivery of Cells to the Injured Myocardium

Abstract

With the high incidence of heart failure in the developing world and the inherent risks and limited availability of donor hearts, cell-based solutions have become an attractive solution. However, current methods to deliver cells to the heart have resulted in limited long term cell retention and consequently minimal therapeutic efficacy. In this work, we aim to use engineered tissues as a means to deliver cells to the injured myocardium post- infarction with increased cell retention. The results detailed in this dissertation indicate that engineered tissues can be constructed from both primary rodent cardiomyocytes and human pluripotent stem cell derived cardiomyocytes, and that these tissues not only engraft post-infarction with high cell retention , but in some instances also result in improved cardiac function and limitation of left ventricular remodeling postinfarction.