Xylan polysaccharides fabricated into nanofibrous substrate for myocardial infarction

Abstract

Myocardial infarction, a main cause of heart failure, leads to loss of cardiac tissue impairment of left ventricular function. Repair of diseased myocardium with in vitro engineered cardiac muscle patch/injectable biopolymers with cells may become a viable option for myocardial infarction. We attempted to solve these problems by in vitro study by selecting a plant based polysaccharides beech wood Xylan for the normal functioning of infarcted myocardium. The present study fabricated Xylan based nanofibrous scaffolds cross-linked with glutaraldehyde (Glu) vapors for 24 h, 48 h and 1% Glu blended fibers for the culture of neonatal rat cardiac cells for myocardial infarction. These nanofibers were characterized by SEM, FT-IR, tensile testing and cell culture studies for the normal expression of cardiac proteins. The observed results showed that the Xylan/polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) 24 h Glu vapor cross-linked nanofibers (427 nm) having mechanical strength of 2.43 MPa and Young modulus of 3.74 MPa are suitable for the culture of cardiac cells. Cardiac cells proliferation increased only by 11% in Xylan/PVA 24 h Glu cross-linked nanofibers compared to control tissue culture plate (TCP). The normal cardiac cell morphology was observed in 24 h cross-linked Xylan/PVA nanofibers but 48 h cross-linked fibers cell morphology was changed to flattened and elongated on the fibrous surfaces. Confocal analysis for cardiac expression proteins actinin, connexin 43 was observed normally in 24 h Glu cross-linked nanofibers compared to all other nanofibrous scaffolds. The fabricated Xylan/PVA nanofibrous scaffold may have good potential for the normal functioning of infarcted myocardium. © 2012 Elsevier B.V. All Rights Reserved.