Hydrogel to repair heart damage

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Karen Christman from UC San Diego led the development of VentriGel, a hydrogel to repair heart tissue after heart attacks. (Courtesy: David Baillot/University of California San Diego)

SCIENTISTS successfully conducted a first-in-human, FDA-approved Phase 1 clinical trial of an injectable hydrogel that aims to repair damage and restore cardiac function in “heart failure” patients who had previously suffered a heart attack. The trial is the first to test a hydrogel designed to repair cardiac tissue. It is also the first to test a hydrogel made from the natural scaffolding of cardiac muscle tissue, also known as extracellular matrix, or ECM. Researchers from Ventrix, led by Christman, report their findings in the Sept 11 issue of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology: Basic to Translational Science