Myocardial Regeneration Research Paper

Tissue Engineering Strategies for Myocardial Regeneration

3. Therapeutic alternatives for myocardial regeneration

Describe what myocardial regeneration is. Describe the difficulties to be overcome in myocardial regeneration. Describe general strategies, current and potential

Myocardial regeneration is the process by which injured myocardium is restored to its original structure and function. As seen above the normal healing process for post-infarction cardiac tissue involves the generation of a fibrous scar, which provides mechanical support but is devoid of functional cardiomyocytes.

a. Current therapies

Advancements in medical therapy and percutaneous interventions have improved the prognosis post-MI considerably, but the incidence

The use of angioplasty requires the procedure to be performed preferably within 90 minutes of the patient presenting to the emergency room, which most hospitals cannot be provided. For these cases thrombolysis is the best alternative, although it provides inferior outcome than angioplasty[5]. The use of primary angioplasty for the treatment of STEMI was first described as a rescue treatment in the case of failed intracoronary thrombolysis, and was studied extensively as an adjunctive therapy. Primary angioplasty, without the use of thrombolytic treatment, was described in 1983.[6] In general terms, the procedure consists of feeding a deflated balloon or other device (e.g., stent) on a catheter from the inguinal femoral artery or radial artery up through blood vessels until they reach the site of blockage in the heart. At the blockage, the balloon is inflated to open the artery, allowing blood to

During this process there is thinning of the left ventricular walls, with the elliptical LV becoming more spherical and an increase in the dilatation of the LV [14]. A number of different surgical techniques and modifications have been developed to restore LV shape and reduce its volume to improve LV function and are collectively known as left ventricular reconstruction [15-18]. This is a specific surgical procedure developed for the management of heart failure with left ventricular remodeling caused by coronary artery disease[19]. Despite its success, these procedures have not found general acceptance in the medical community. Possible reasons include a lack of robust prospective randomized data showing the mortality benefit of this technique in patients with ischemic cardiomyopathy and dilated ventricles that were referred for CABG. To address these