Effects of cardiac decellularized extracellular matrix hydrogel as a functional myocardial patch on the growth of cardiomyocytes

OBJECTIVES: To address the immune rejection and inflammatory reactions that currently exist in functional myocardial patches when promoting myocardial cell growth. METHODS: The cardiac acellular Decellularized Extracellular Matrix (dECM) hydrogel was prepared and used as a functional myocardial patch for immune rejection and inflammatory reaction. RESULTS: Compared with hyaluronic acid hydrogel and cardiomyocytes in tissue culture plate, the cardiomyocytes in the cardiac dECM hydrogel had the strongest cell viability. After 5 days of culture, the cell viability increased to 292.9% relative to control. Moreover, after the hydrogel culture, the relative expression levels of CACNA1C and ATP2A2 genes in cardiomyocytes reached 3.43 and 1.83, respectively, which were also higher than those in the other two groups. CONCLUSIONS: From the above results, cardiac dECM hydrogel can promote the growth of cardiomyocytes.