Coadministration of an Adhesive Conductive Hydrogel Patch and an Injectable Hydrogel to Treat Myocardial Infarction

• Published in: ACS applied materials & interfaces 2020-01, Vol.12 (2), p.2039-2048
• Main Authors: Wu, Tengling, Cui, Chunyan, Huang, Yuting, Liu, Yang, Fan, Chuanchuan, Han, Xiaoxu, Yang, Yang, Xu, Ziyang, Liu, Bo, Fan, Guanwei, Liu, Wenguang
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 1944-8244; 1944-8252
• DOI: 10.1021/acsami.9b17907

Over the past decade, tissue-engineering strategies, mainly involving injectable hydrogels and epicardial biomaterial patches, have been pursued to treat myocardial infarction. However, only limited therapeutic efficacy is achieved with a single means. Here, a combined therapy approach is proposed, that is, the coadministration of a conductive hydrogel patch and injectable hydrogel to the infarcted myocardium. The self-adhesive conductive hydrogel patch is fabricated based on Fe3+-induced ionic coordination between dopamine–gelatin (GelDA) conjugates and dopamine-functionalized polypyrrole (DA–PPy), which form a homogeneous network. The injectable and cleavable hydrogel is formed in situ via a Schiff base reaction between oxidized sodium hyaluronic acid (HA-CHO) and hydrazided hyaluronic acid (HHA). Compared with a single-mode system, injecting the HA-CHO/HHA hydrogel intramyocardially followed by painting a conductive GelDA/DA–PPy hydrogel patch on the heart surface results in a more pronounced improvement of the cardiac function in terms of echocardiographical, histological, and angiogenic outcomes.