Heart Tissue Retreat: 3D Printing for Better Healing

Dr. Smith knows that growing new heart tissue in the lab is tricky. One challenge is making sure the tiny scaffolds that support the cells have the right shape. They should mimic the native heart's structure, like the way muscle fibers line up. Recently, Dr. Smith and their team tried something new. They created a 3D-printed scaffold using a flexible plastic called polycaprolactone (PCL). By setting the layers at a specific angle, 45 degrees, they made the scaffold closely resemble the heart's natural structure. The team tested this new scaffold with cells called hiPSC-CMs, which are like tiny heart muscle cells. They found that the 45-degree scaffolds were better for growing these cells than regular scaffolds or those with 90-degree angles. questions arose: How do these scaffolds help the cells grow and work better? The answer lies in the scaffold's influence on the cells' calcium handling and the expression of ion channel genes. In simple terms, it's like giving the cells a better rhythm. Using these special scaffolds, Dr. Smith's team created more complex heart tissues, adding other essential cells like endothelial cells and mesenchymal stem cells. When these tissues were tested in mice with heart injuries, the results were encouraging. The tissues helped heal the injured hearts and improved the mice's heart function. Overall, Dr. Smith's work opens up new possibilities for heart tissue regeneration. It's a step forward in cardiovascular medicine, showing that a well-structured environment can greatly enhance healing.