Synthetic scaffolds outperform traditional methods for growing hPSCs-derived cardiomyocytes

Team:
Luis F. Arrieta-Viana, Janet Mendez-Vega and Madeline Torres-Lugo

Institution:
Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Puerto Rico-Mayagüez

Regenerative medicine aims to repair damaged tissues, such as heart muscle after a heart attack, by using stem cells to generate new, healthy cells. A major hurdle is creating a reliable and scalable environment to grow these human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs) and guide them to become specific cell types, like cardiomyocytes (heart muscle cells). Traditionally, scientists use animal-derived gels like Matrigel™, but these are inconsistent from batch to batch, have an undefined composition, and are difficult to scale up for clinical use. Without a standardized, synthetic alternative, the progress toward effective stem cell therapies remains slow and unpredictable. Synthetic hydrogels are emerging as a solution to these challenges.

In this study, researchers developed and tested a new synthetic, thermo-responsive scaffold as a superior platform for growing hPSCs and differentiating them into cardiomyocytes. To rigorously evaluate their new material, they used VitroGel® Hydrogel Matrix, a xeno-free, biofunctional synthetic hydrogel, as a critical control in their 3D experiments. The team compared their custom scaffold, both with and without added bioactive molecules, against  VitroGel® to benchmark performance in supporting cell growth, maintaining stem cell identity, and enabling efficient cardiac differentiation. The role of VitroGel® was essential in providing a consistent, xeno-free baseline, demonstrating that the novel terpolymer scaffold could achieve comparable or even better results than a leading commercial synthetic product.