Professor Glenn Gaudette has been awarded a $1.94 million, 5 year grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The research involves using biopolymer microthreads to deliver stem cells to hearts that have been damaged by heart attack or chronic disease, to promote muscle regeneration. Prof. Gaudette will be working in collaboration with Prof. George Pins, and Michael Laflamme, MD, PhD, associate professor of pathology at the University of Washington.
These microthreads are each about the size of a human hair and, can be braided into cable-like structures that mimic natural connective tissues. They were first developed in Pins’s lab as a potential tool for repairing torn anterior cruciate ligaments (ACL) in the knee, the microthreads were then transformed by Gaudette and Pins into biological sutures that can be used to stich stem cells directly into wound sites and damaged tissues.
Vessels that deliver blood and oxygen to the heart are choked off, during a heart attack, therefore damaging sections of cardiac muscle. The damaged or “infarcted” muscle scars become rigid and unable to contract, diminishing the heart’s ability to pump blood. The ultimate goal of Gaudette’s team is to use the regenerative capabilities of adult stem cells to transform portions of that scarred tissue back into working heart muscle.
