The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has awarded a grant of nearly $5 million
to the McGowan Institute to fund research aimed at developing unique tissue-engineered
solutions for heart disease. The research will focus on the development of a tissue-engineered
“cardiac patch” and tissue-engineered blood vessels for possible surgical
use following heart attack or other cardiovascular events. To reach this goal,
the grant combines the expertise of University of Pittsburgh faculty in stem cell
biology, tissue engineering and imaging in what is called a Bioengineering Research
Partnership. This work is funded by NIH’s National Heart, Lung and Blood
Institute. The multidisciplinary team assembled by Professor William R. Wagner,
Ph.D. and includes the following faculty: Michael Sacks, Ph.D., David Vorp, Ph.D.,
Johnny Huard, Ph.D, Robert Kormos, M.D., Simon Watkins, Ph.D. and Flordeliza Villanueva, Ph.D.
“We are working on ways to grow tissues that will not just be similar to our own in terms of their make-up, but also that will be mechanically strong and functional,” said Dr. Wagner, who also is a deputy director of the McGowan Institute. “To do this, we will need to train the tissue as it develops for the role that it will ultimately assume.”
Such tissue development efforts aim to help the body regenerate its own components needed to repair damage caused by heart attack or underlying disease such as congestive heart failure (CHF), a loss of functional heart muscle. Nearly 5 million Americans are currently living with CHF, according to the American Heart Association. About 550,000 new cases are diagnosed annually. Of those, about 50 percent likely will die within five years.
Figure A illustrates a heart that has been damaged due to the loss of functional heart muscle. Figure B is a close-up of a scarred heart wall. This scarring occurs when the heart muscle tissue fails to receive an ample blood supply. In Figure C, researchers hope to “patch” or repair the heart tissue by placing a tissue-engineered material that helps strengthen the body’s own heart muscle.
Being able to provide tissue-engineered treatments to increase muscle strength and replace arteries blocked by heart disease could have significant positive impact on patient care.
For the second project, a team led by Professor David Vorp is working to develop tissue-engineered blood vessels that are a biological and functional equivalent to the patient’s own blood vessels, such as those used for coronary artery bypass surgery. Mechanical stresses are being applied to these constructs in order to train them to grow and function similarly to natural blood vessels.
Related projects will track the development of these treatment options on a molecular level, measuring biological markers of stem cells to establish differentiation into appropriate cell lineages, including cardiomyocytes, smooth muscle cells and endothelial cells. These cells are among the main components of heart muscle and blood vessel construction. Cell components will be tagged with fluorescent proteins that can be targeted by imaging technologies to follow the development of the cells and tissues after they have been placed in the body. Project scope will encompass in vitro and preclinical studies of tissue-engineered products.