A. Géraldine Guex, Fabrizio Romano, Irene C. Marcu, Hendrik T. Tevaearai,Nina D. Ullrich, Marie-Noëlle Giraud
Tissue Engineering, Embryonic Stem Cells, Cardiomyo-cytes, Electrospinning
Post-myocardial infarction pathologies are additionally com- promized by the poor self-repair capacity of the myocardium and the limited possibilities for clinical interventions for re- generation. Cell therapy and in particular tissue engineering evolved as attractive therapeutic options to counteract the high mortality after myocardial infarction and aim to regen- erate the myocardium by the delivery of functional cells or tissue constructs. The implantation of stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes, embedded in a biologically degradable ma- trix, constitutes an intriguing approach, and scaffolds for the culture of cardiomyocytes are increasingly studied. To this end, we developed an electrospun, plasma coated scaffold for the culture of embryonic stem cell (ESC)-derived cardio- myocytes. ESCs were differentiated into cardiomyocytes by the "hanging drop" method and subsequently cultured on a fibrous poly( -caprolactone) scaffold. We could demon- strate that the cardiomyogenic phenotype is maintained on the fibrous matrices. Spontaneously beating areas were highly prevalent and α-actinin expression indicated the dif- ferentiation into cardiomyocytes. Our results validate the feasibility of cardiomyogenic culture on the designed matrix and warrant further research on the ex vivo generation of a cardiac construct.
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