video: The hydrogel is made from cardiac connective tissue that is stripped of heart muscle cells through a cleansing process, freeze-dried and milled into powder form, and then liquefied into a fluid that can be easily injected into the heart. Once it hits body temperature, the liquid turns into a semi-solid, porous gel that encourages cells to repopulate areas of damaged cardiac tissue and to preserve heart function. This image relates to a paper that appeared in the Feb. 20, 2013, issue of Science Translational Medicine, published by AAAS. The paper, by Sonya Seif-Naraghi at University of California, San Diego in La Jolla, Calif., and colleagues was titled, “Safety and Efficacy of an Injectable Extracellular Matrix Hydrogel for Treating Myocardial Infarction.” view more
Credit: UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering