(A-8) Paintable and adhesive hydrogel cardiac patch with conductive MXene nanoflakes for infarcted heart repair

Introduction: Myocardial infarction (MI) is a leading global cause of mortality. The infarcted heart undergoes excessive inflammatory reactions and irreversible pathological remodeling, frequently leading to excessive dilation, electrical disconnection between cardiac cells, and fatal functional damage. Hence, extensive attempts have been made to attenuate pathological remodeling and promote repair of the infarcted heart. In this study, we developed a paintable and conductive hydrogel patch that can provide mechanical support, tissue adhesiveness, and electrical conduction to repair of infarcted heart tissues.


Materials and Methods:We developed a novel conductive and adhesive hydrogel (CAH) cardiac patch by combining two self-gelling biopolymers with conductive 2D titanium carbide MXene. Upon mixing, the polymers undergo spontaneous gelation, enabling in situ gelation, painting, and strong adhesion to the epicardium through hydrogen bonding and chemical bond formation. We varied the MXene content to produce different CAH and characterized their material properties, including mechanical, electrochemical, adhesive, and cytocompatibility properties. Finally, to investigate the therapeutic effects and mechanism, we conducted 2-week in vivo animal studies with CAH and evaluated the results with echocardiography and histological analysis.


Results, Conclusions, and Discussions:CAHs were formed within 250 s after mixing the precursor solution and suitable for painting. The CAHs displayed material properties suitable for their cardiac patch application, including cardiac tissue-like modulus (40.5 kPa), strong tissue adhesion (4.3 kPa), and excellent mechanical stability. In particular, CAHs containing MXene showed a uniform distribution of MXene and high electrical conductivity (18.3 mS/cm). CAHs were found to be cytocompatible and capable of inducing cardiomyocyte (CM) maturation in vitro, as evidenced by upregulation of connexin 43 expression and a faster beating rate. The CAHs could be directly painted onto cardiac tissue and remained stably attached to the beating epicardium. In vivo animal experiments showed that these cardiac patch treatments significantly improved cardiac function and alleviated the pathological remodeling of the infarcted heart. Heart tissue treated with CAHs showed increased angiogenesis, reduced inflammatory macrophages, and cardiac maturation.

Conclusions: We successfully developed a novel biocompatible and adhesive hydrogel as cardiac patch that can be attached to the epicardium through stable tissue adhesion without sutures, providing electrical conductivity, tissue-like softness, and mechanical support to enable efficient cardiac repair after MI. The CAH patches significantly improved functional recovery of infarcted hearts and prevented pathological tissue remodeling. MXene-containing paintable hydrogels will serve as an effective and convenient platform to guide cardiac repair.


Acknowledgements (Optional): This work was supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea(NRF) grant funded by the Korea government(MSIT) (NRF-2021R1A4A3025206 and No.2023R1A2C200280211).


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