Cardiovascular diseases affect millions of people each year with myocardial infarction as one of the
leading causes for the progression of heart failure and death. Currently, there is a lack of therapeutics that
prevent left ventricular remodeling while also promoting tissue repair and regeneration. Here in the
Christman lab, we have developed a porcine left ventricle-derived decellularized myocardial matrix (MM)
hydrogel that has been shown to mitigate left ventricular remodeling and has completed a Phase 1 clinical trial.
Previous characterization consisted of scanning electron microscopy to observe the material on the
microscale, rheological measurements to ensure viability via catheter injection and proteomic analysis
showing that the MM hydrogel is predominantly composed of type I collagen – a material known to form
a hydrogel when purified – alongside other fibrillar collagens and extracellular matrix proteins such as
laminin. However, the fundamental mechanisms of hydrogel formation for the heterogeneous MM
hydrogel have yet to be uncovered. I employ a combination of microscopy and bond analysis techniques,
such as cryogenic transmission electron microscopy, two-photon microscopy and Fourier transform
infrared spectroscopy to elucidate the structure of MM at various levels. Using this multi-scale approach,
I can then probe the fundamental material relationships between composition, structure, and function to
better understand its intrinsic hydrogel-forming mechanisms.