Velcro-inspired scaffold offers new heart repair applications

A biocompatible scaffold that can be assembled and disassembled with the ease of Velcro has been developed for heart repair applications.

The University of Toronto engineers have used a special polymer called POMaC to create a 2D mesh for heart cells to grow around. It resembles a honeycomb in shape, but features T-shaped posts that allow it to hook into other scaffolds.

Thanks to the modular nature of the technology, it is simple to customise the graft to each patient, allowing the tissue to be built at the time of surgery to any size specification. The polymer scaffold is also biodegradable and can be broken down by the body in months.

Study leader Professor Milica Radisic said: "One of the main advantages is the ease of use. We can build larger tissue structures immediately before they are needed, and disassemble them just as easily."

Additionally, the ability to put them together and take them apart at will could enable scientists to get much more detailed information on cell response than is currently possible.

It is thought this principle could also be applied to other tissue types, such as liver and lung cells, allowing for the creation of artificial tissues that could be used to test out new drugs in a realistic environment.