Injectable and conductive cardiac patches repair infarcted myocardium in rats and minipigs

Cardiac patches can help to restore the electrophysiological properties of the heart after myocardial infarction. However, scaffolds for the repair of heart muscle typically require surgical implantation or, if they are injectable, they are not electrically conductive or do not maintain their shape or function. Here, we report the performance, as demonstrated for the repair of infarcted heart muscle in rats and minipigs, of injectable and conductive scaffolds consisting of methacrylated elastin and gelatin, and carbon nanotubes that display shape-memory behaviour, a hierarchical porous structure and a negligible Poisson’s ratio. In rats, the implantation of cell-free patches or patches seeded with rat cardiomyocytes onto the myocardium after ligation of the left anterior descending coronary artery led to functional repair after 4 weeks, as indicated by increases in fractional shortening and the ejection fraction, and by a decrease in the infarcted area. We also observed measures of functional recovery in minipigs with infarcted hearts after the delivery of cell-free patches or patches incorporating cardiomyocytes differentiated from human pluripotent stem cells. Injectable and electrically conductive scaffolds displaying shape-memory behaviour and a hierarchical porous structure enhance the functional repair of infarcted heart muscle in rats and minipigs.