'Velcro-like' scaffold holds promise for artificial heart grafts

Canadian engineers have created a biocompatible scaffold that could make it easier to grow artificial heart tissue for repairing damaged hearts.

Scientists have been able grow heart cells in the laboratory for a number of years, however the absence of the support cells found in a real heart means that these cells often bear little resemblance to those found in the body.

To address this, a team from the University of Toronto in Canada has developed a scaffold mesh that can be used to build larger tissue structures than is possible with existing methods.

The group, led by biomedical engineer Prof Milica Radisic, used a special polymer called POMaC to create a 2D mesh for the cells to grow around.

This resembles a honeycomb in shape, except that the holes are not symmetrical. Instead, they are wider in one direction than in another. This provides a template that causes the cells to line up together. When stimulated with an electrical current, the heart muscle cells contract together, causing the flexible polymer to bend.