Tissue engineering has become a promising and emerging area of research to treat a variety of physiological conditions ranging from orthopedic-related to cardiac-related problems. Congestive heart failure is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality in the United States and is increasing throughout the world. A major cause of heart failure is the loss and limited regeneration of cardiomyocytes. Therefore, tissue engineering of myocardium is an actively developing area of research to restore cardiac function. There have been several studies that have demonstrated successful engineering of functional myocardium. In this study, I propose exploring a new approach for in vivo engineering of cardiac tissue - to use a spontaneous vascularizing scaffold as a 3-dimensional substrate for cardiac tissue formation through testing of specific hypotheses. Specifically, Aim 1 will test the hypothesis that a self-assembling peptide gel promotes spontaneous angiogenesis in vivo, by endogenous endothelial cells.
Aim 2 will test the hypothesis that targeting growth factors to the peptide gel will accelerate endothelial cell differentiation and capillary formation, resulting in improved survival of implanted cardiomyocytes. ? ?
