Abstract
The role of adult stem cells in cardiac homeostasis and repair has been addressed by several studies and the possibility that resident or circulating progenitors could be transplanted into the damaged myocardium envisaged as a new perspective for the treatment of cardiac diseases. So far, few protocols based on the injection of cells into the injured site demonstrated the complexity of a cell-based approach to cardiac repair, suggesting the adoption of tissue engineering concepts to setup more suitable procedures. In the present study, the possibility of fabricating three-dimensional stem cell-based cardiac patches has been investigated. In particular, mesenchymal stem cells (MSC) and cardiac progenitors (CPC) were tested for their ability to grow on 3D biodegradable scaffolds of PLLA and PLGA, showing divergent behaviour. Such results demonstrate the feasibility of in vitro stem cell-derived cardiac patches and suggest the possibility of fabricating 3D bio-constructs with different degrees of induction to be used in cardiac tissue healing. Further investigations are required to assess the efficiency of stem cell-based patches in vivo.