Healthcare (Commonwealth Union) – A heart attack, medically known as a myocardial infarction, occurs when blood flow to a part of the heart muscle is severely reduced or blocked. This interruption in blood supply can cause significant damage to the heart tissue, potentially leading to serious complications or death. Understanding the causes, symptoms, and prevention strategies for heart attacks is crucial for maintaining cardiovascular health and reducing risk.
Heart attacks are primarily caused by the blockage of one or more coronary arteries, which supply blood to the heart muscle. The most common cause of this blockage is atherosclerosis, a condition where fatty deposits (plaques) build up on the artery walls. These plaques can rupture, causing a blood clot to form and obstruct the flow of blood.
Researchers from the University of New South Wales (UNSW) have created a novel microgel derived from silk produced by moths, aimed at aiding tissue regeneration and potentially improving recovery from heart attacks.
Engineers at UNSW have ingeniously developed a new silk-based material designed to aid in heart tissue regeneration. By transforming silk from domestic silk moths into a gel-like substance known as a microgel using light, they have demonstrated in mice that it is compatible with the body and supports the regeneration of cells and tissues.
This microgel is engineered to replicate the mechanical and physical characteristics of the cellular environment within the body, as well as the properties of human tissue.
The long-term objective is to refine this material to enhance treatments for cardiovascular diseases and assist heart muscle recovery in individuals who have experienced a heart attack.
Associate Professor Jelena Rnjak-Kovacina and her team have detailed their research in the journal Advanced Functional Materials, revealing that the microgel, when implanted on the skin of mice, supports the growth of cells and blood vessels and encourages new tissue formation.
Researchers indicated that hydrogels are much less porous and so cells in the body are unable to simply move around and via the material and actually grow inside them.
A/Professor Rnjak-Kovacina. Indicated that the issue has been a persistent challenge in this area of research for many years.
She pointed out that in their work, they have preserved the beneficial aspects of hydrogels while enhancing their porosity. Rather than having a single uniform gel, they are creating numerous small microgels. Each microgel maintains the advantageous properties of hydrogels, but the increased porosity improves cell interactions.
“Another benefit is that our microgel mimics the complexity of the body. Hydrogels are homogeneous, it’s one lump that looks the same all the way through – but our bodies are not like that. Our bodies are heterogeneous, they’re complex.
“With the microgels, the tiny individual elements can all be different and that allows us to build complexity that matches what’s also happening inside the body, which is really difficult to do currently.”
Researchers at UNSW have initiated additional studies to inject their microgel into mice hearts to investigate its specific repair and regeneration capabilities in myocardial tissue.
If these trials prove successful, they will then proceed to testing on larger animals, such as pigs, before embarking on human clinical trials, which could take at least five years to complete.
In the meantime, A/Prof. Rnjak-Kovacina suggests that the microgel might be used sooner as a treatment for skin wounds and for cultivating human tissue in the lab, which could then be employed to test various other medications.
She indicated that they are also evaluating these microgels for skin wound healing, which is a significantly less invasive approach compared to heart injections.
“It could potentially be used for people with serious burns, or chronic wounds like diabetic ulcers that struggle to heal.
“Another broader application is to develop models of human tissues in the lab that properly mimic real human tissue that can offer a huge benefit when then testing new drugs and therapuetics.”
