New gel injection may prevent further heart damage after a heart attack

Heart disease is a leading cause of death, due to the irreversible damage caused to the heart muscle or cardiac tissue during a heart attack. Picture: Science Photo Library

A new gel injection may help to heal the heart muscle of people who suffered a heart attack, according to new research from NUI Galway.

Staff at the CÚRAM medical devices research centre, along with researchers from the University of Valladolid in Spain, have developed an injectable hydrogel that could help repair and prevent further damage to the heart muscle after a heart attack. 

The potentially game-changing injection could lead to heart attack patients having a higher chance of survival.

Heart disease is a leading cause of death, due to the irreversible damage caused to the heart muscle or cardiac tissue during a heart attack. 

Cardiac tissue undergoes minimal regeneration, meaning the damage caused by a heart attack cannot be repaired by the body itself. 

The international research team, which included researchers from Ireland, Spain, Sweden, France and Italy, were able to show that if their hydrogel was injected into the heart muscle shortly after a heart attack, it resulted in less fibrosis (scarring of the cardiac tissue) and an increase in the generation of new blood vessels in the area. 

They were also able to observe the rise in the preservation and survival of cardiomyocytes, a type of cell that allows the heart to beat.

The results of the first of its kind research have just been published in the prestigious journal Science Translational Medicine.

'Hydrogel injection may change the way the heart muscle heals after a heart attack' New research from CÚRAM published this week in @ScienceTM by @abhay_curam @DaCostaCardiac @RC_Bioforge @UVa_es @NUIGalwayPress @scienceirel @ResearchatNUIG Read more at https://t.co/U6cWrJXhsz pic.twitter.com/mkdZ1mCyzj

— CÚRAM (@CURAMdevices) February 19, 2021

"This project involved the development and testing of an elastin-based hydrogel derived from a naturally occurring biomaterial in the human body," explained Professor Abhay Pandit, scientific director of CÚRAM at NUI Galway and project lead. 

"The hydrogel was developed to mimic the environment around the heart following an infarction and then customised to have the ability to protect and promote regeneration of the cardiac tissue," said Prof Pandit.

Professor Mark Da Costa, cardiothoracic surgeon at the College of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences in NUI Galway, is a senior co-author of the study. He said the scar tissue that forms after a heart attack often remodels negatively, causing future problems like heart failure.  

"The timely injection of this hydrogel appears to change the way the heart muscle heals after a heart attack."

The next step for the injection is a clinical trial.