Researchers hope silk-based breakthrough could help heal heart attack patients

UNSW researchers have developed a new gel based on silk from moths with potential to regenerate damaged tissue, and which they hope can one day be used to help patients recover from a heart attack.

The team’s paper (linked) in Advanced Functional Materials describes “a novel silk fibroin microgel platform that enhances cell growth and infiltration in vitro and in vivo” for mice, and which mimics the properties of the cells it interacts with.

“We get the silk from a moth that creates the material when it builds its cocoon as part of its metamorphosis from a worm. One benefit of silk is that it is very strong, on a par with Kevlar – a synthetic fibre used in bullet-proof vests,” said Associate Professor Jelena Rnjak-Kovacina from UNSW.

“We can take that silk fibre and dissolve it to create liquid silk. From there, we use light to turn that liquid silk into a form of jelly – exactly in the same way that you make Jello from a liquid, but instead of doing it through a temperature transition we can do that with light.

According to a statement from UNSW on Wednesday, new cells could “grow within the microgel when implanted onto the skin of mice” and the gel works by “stimulat[ing] the right inflammatory responses within the body to promote cell growth and tissue regeneration.”

Rnjak-Kovacina said the gels could be loaded up with growth factors to help stimulate new tissue growth in patients and were much more porous than hydrogels — which have traditionally been used for this purpose — which meant cells could grow more easily within them.

The team believe that their microgel could be used for healing wounded skin, but longer-term, “the really big problem we’re trying to solve” is repairing tissue post-heart, said Rnjak-Kovacina.

“Unfortunately the heart does not repair very well, so after a heart attack there is a weakened part of the heart muscle and the heart has to work a lot harder to overcome that and over time that can lead to heart failure,” she explained.

“Our goal is to be able to inject what’s called a cardiac patch so the microgel material stimulates the repair and regeneration process that then supports improved heart function.”

Picture: Microgel manufacture using a microfluidic device​ (credit Jelena Rnjak-Kovacina/UNSW)