The beneficial effects of deferred delivery on the efficiency of hydrogel therapy post myocardial infarction
- Resource Type
- Authors
- Karen Kadner; Deon Bezuidenhout; Mazin S. Sirry; Neil H. Davies; Thomas Franz; Stephan Dobner; Peter Zilla
- Source
- Biomaterials. 33:2060-2066
- Subject
- Male
Materials science
medicine.medical_treatment
Myocardial Infarction
Biophysics
Infarction
Biocompatible Materials
Bioengineering
Context (language use)
Polyethylene Glycol Hydrogel
Post myocardial infarction
Polyethylene Glycols
Biomaterials
Drug Delivery Systems
medicine
Animals
Humans
Rats, Wistar
Saline
Beneficial effects
Ventricular Remodeling
Ventricular wall
Heart
Hydrogels
medicine.disease
Rats
Mechanics of Materials
Self-healing hydrogels
Ceramics and Composites
Biomedical engineering
- Language
- ISSN
- 0142-9612
Biomaterials are increasingly being investigated as a means of reducing stress within the ventricular wall of infarcted hearts and thus attenuating pathological remodelling and loss of function. In this context, we have examined the influence of timing of delivery on the efficacy of a polyethylene glycol hydrogel polymerised with an enzymatically degradable peptide sequence. Delivery of the hydrogel immediately after infarct induction resulted in no observable improvements, but a delay of one week in delivery resulted in significant increases in scar thickness and fractional shortening, as well as reduction in end-systolic diameter against saline controls and immediately injected hydrogel at both 2 and 4 weeks post-infarction (p < 0.05). Hydrogels injected at one week were degraded significantly slower than those injected immediately and this may have played a role in the differing outcomes. The hydrogel assumed markedly different morphologies at the two time points having either a fibrillar or bulky appearance after injection immediately or one week post-infarction respectively. We argue that the different morphologies result from infarction induced changes in the cardiac structure and influence the degradability of the injectates. The results indicate that timing of delivery is important and that very early time points may not be beneficial.