Approximately 422.7 million heart diseases cases are diagnosed annually across the globe. The dysfunction and death of specialized muscle cells, cardiomyocytes, cause many of these heart failures to occur. The adult heart has scarce capability to regenerate these cells after injury and access to heart transplants is limited. Regenerative medicine has become the alternative standard of care, but a majority of the treatments tend to be invasive the cells have short lifetimes and poor integration to the target area. Groups at the University of Colorado have shown the integration of carbon nanotubes in cardiovascular medicine to help improve the proliferation, viability, and function of cardiomyocytes. The inventors have developed an injectable, reverse thermal gel, functionalized with CNTs, as a delivery system for new heart cells. The gel exists as a liquid at room temperature and becomes a 3D matrix shortly after reaching body temperature. This delivery system is minimally invasive and does not require additional steps for activation of the scaffold. Initial studies have shown the gel to perform better than a traditional 2D gelatin matrix and a pilot biocompatibility test in mice yielded good tolerance and no signs of toxicity.
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