Co-axial fibrous scaffolds integrating with carbon fiber promote cardiac tissue regeneration post myocardial infarction
Jie Meng 1, Bo Xiao 2, Fengxin Wu 1, Lihong
Sun 3, Bo Li 4, Wen Guo 4, Xuechun Hu 1, Xuegai Xu 1, Tao Wen 1, Jian Liu 1,
Haiyan Xu 1
Mater Today Bio. 2022 Sep 5;16:100415.doi:
10.1016/j.mtbio.2022.100415. eCollection 2022 Dec.
PMID: 36105673
Abstract
Myocardium is an excitable tissue with
electrical conductivity and mechanical strength. In this work, carbon fibers
(CFs) and co-axial fibrous mesh were integrated which combined the high modulus
and excellent electrical conductivity of CFs and the fibrous and porous
structures of the electrospun fibers. The scaffold was fabricated by simply
integrating coaxial electrospun fibers and carbon fibers through a
freeze-drying procedure. It was shown that the integration of carbon fibers
have the conductivity and Young's modulus of the fibrous mesh increased
significantly, meanwhile, upregulated the expression of CX43, α-actinin, RhoA
of the neonatal rat primary cardiomyocytes and primary human umbilical vein
endothelial cells (HUVECs), and promoted the secretion of VEGF of HUVECs.
Moreover, the cardiomyocytes grown on the scaffolds increased the ability of
HUVECs migration. When implanted to the injury area post myocardial infraction,
the scaffolds were able to effectively enhance the tissue regeneration and new
vessel formation, which rescued the heart dysfunction induced by the myocardial
infraction, evidenced by the results of echocardiography and histochemical
analysis. In conclusion, the composite scaffolds could promote the myocardium
regeneration and function's recovery by enhancing cardiomyocytes maturation and
angiogenesis and establishing the crosstalk between the cardiomyocytes and the
vascular endothelial cells.