Stimuli-responsive biomaterials for cardiac tissue engineering and dynamic mechanobiology.

Since the term “smart materials” was put forward in the 1980s, stimuli-responsive biomaterials have been used as powerful tools in tissue engineering, mechanobiology, and clinical applications. For the purpose of myocardial repair and regeneration, stimuli-responsive biomaterials are employed to fabricate hydrogels and nanoparticles for targeted delivery of therapeutic drugs and cells, which have been proved to alleviate disease progression and enhance tissue regeneration. By reproducing the sophisticated and dynamic microenvironment of the native heart, stimuli-responsive biomaterials have also been used to engineer dynamic culture systems to understand how cardiac cells and tissues respond to progressive changes in extracellular microenvironments, enabling the investigation of dynamic cell mechanobiology. Here, we provide an overview of stimuli-responsive biomaterials used in cardiovascular research applications, with a specific focus on cardiac tissue engineering and dynamic cell mechanobiology. We also discuss how these smart materials can be utilized to mimic the dynamic microenvironment during heart development, which might provide an opportunity to reveal the fundamental mechanisms of cardiomyogenesis and cardiac maturation.

自20世纪80年代“智能材料”这一术语被提出以来，刺激响应性生物材料已在组织工程、力学生物学和临床应用中被用作有力工具。为了心肌修复和再生的目的，刺激响应性生物材料被用于制造水凝胶和纳米颗粒，以实现治疗药物和细胞的靶向递送，这已被证明可缓解疾病进展并促进组织再生。通过重现天然心脏复杂且动态的微环境，刺激响应性生物材料还被用于构建动态培养系统，以了解心脏细胞和组织如何对细胞外微环境的渐进性变化作出反应，从而能够研究动态细胞力学生物学。在此，我们概述了在心血管研究应用中使用的刺激响应性生物材料，特别关注心脏组织工程和动态细胞力学生物学。我们还讨论了这些智能材料如何能够被用于模拟心脏发育过程中的动态微环境，这可能为揭示心肌发生和心脏成熟的基本机制提供机会。