Paintable and Rapidly Bondable Conductive Hydrogels as Therapeutic Cardiac Patches

TLDR

Cardiac patches have been developed to treat myocardial infarction, yet conventional fixation methods such as sutures or phototriggered reactions damage surrounding tissue. The authors created a paintable hydrogel by Fe³⁺‑triggered co‑polymerization of pyrrole and dopamine, forming conductive polypyrrole that crosslinks the hyperbranched network. The conductive, adhesive hydrogel can be painted onto the heart without liquid leakage, bonds strongly within four weeks, matches myocardial conductivity, enhances electrophysiological signal transmission, and markedly improves cardiac function and revascularization, offering a promising suture‑free strategy for clinical translation.

Abstract

Abstract In recent years, cardiac patches have been developed for the treatment of myocardial infarction. However, the fixation approaches onto the tissue through suture or phototriggered reaction inevitably cause new tissue damage. Herein, a paintable hydrogel is constructed based on Fe 3+ ‐triggered simultaneous polymerization of covalently linked pyrrole and dopamine in the hyperbranched chains where the in situ formed conductive polypyrrole also uniquely serves to crosslink network. This conductive and adhesive hydrogel can be conveniently painted as a patch onto the heart surface without adverse liquid leakage. The functional patch whose conductivity is equivalent to that of normal myocardium is strongly bonded to the beating heart within 4 weeks, accordingly efficiently boosting the transmission of electrophysiological signals. Eventually, the reconstruction of cardiac function and revascularization of the infarct myocardium are remarkably improved. The translatable suture‐free strategy reported in this work is promising to address the human clinical challenges in cardiac tissue engineering.