New fabricated spring-like fibers developed by scientists help repair damaged heart tissue.
Doctoral students Sharon Fleischer and Ron Feiner - under the
supervision of Dr. Tal Dvir of Tel Aviv University's Department of
Molecular Microbiology and Biotechnology and the Center for Nanoscience
and Nanotechnology - have fabricated fibers shaped like springs that
allow engineered cardiac tissue to pump more like the real thing. Dvir said that until now, when scientists have tried to engineer cardiac
tissue, they've used straight fibers to support the contracting cells.
He said that but these fibers prevent the contraction of the engineered
tissue and what they did was mimic the spring-like fibers that promote
contraction and relaxation of the heart muscle. Dvir asserted that they found that by growing tissues on these fibers, they got more functional tissues. The researchers identified spiral-shaped collagen fibers in the
extracellular matrix of rat hearts and seeing the potential for an
advance, they set out to recreate them for the first time. After fabricating the spring-like fibers using advanced techniques, they subjected them to a variety of tests. As the researchers predicted, the spring-like fibers showed better
mechanical properties than straight fibers, with especially improved
elasticity. And compared to tissue engineered with straight fibers, the tissue
engineered with spring-like fibers contracted with greater force and
less mechanical resistance. They study has been published in the journal Biomaterials in August.
Source-ANI
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