InfarctionRepair.PDFVIP

applied sciences Article Synthesis of Injectable Alginate Hydrogels with Muscle-Derived Stem Cells for Potential Myocardial Infarction Repair Rui Fang 1, Weiming Tian 2 and Xiongbiao Chen 1,3,* 1 Division of Biomedical Engineering, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon S7N 5A9, Canada; ruf084@mail.usask.ca 2 Bio-X Center, School of Life Science and Technology, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150001, China; tianweiming@ 3 Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon S7N 5A9, Canada * Correspondence: xbc719@mail.usask.ca; Tel.: +1-306-9661-267 Academic Editor: Hidenori Otsuka Received: 15 December 2016; Accepted: 28 February 2017; Published: 4 March 2017 Abstract: Myocardial infarction (MI), caused by the occlusion of the left ventricular coronary artery, leads to the loss of cardiomyocytes and, potentially, heart failure. Cardiomyocytes in adult mammals proliferate at an extremely low rate and thus, a major challenge in MI treatment is supplementing exogenous cells and keeping them viable in MI areas. To address this challenge, injecting hydrogels encapsulating cells into MI areas, to compensate for the loss of cardiomyocytes, shows promise. This study synthesized two types of alginate hydrogels, based on self-crosslinking (SCL) and calcium ion crosslinking (Ca2+) in varying formulations. The hydrogels encapsulated living muscle-derived stem cells (MDSCs) and their performance was evaluated in terms of optimizing cell viability during the injection process, as well as the live/dead rate after long-term cultivation. The morphology of the hydrogel-encapsulated cells was characterized by scanning electronic microscopy (SEM) and live/dead cells were examined using an MTT (3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide staining) assay. The mechanical properties of the hydrogels were also determined via a rheometer, to identify their in?uence