Carbon nanomaterial-enhanced scaffolds for the creation of cardiac tissue constructs: A new frontier in cardiac tissue engineering

Carbon nanomaterials (CNMs) have outstanding mechanical and electrical properties, making them ideal candidates for improving conventional cardiac tissue scaffolds. The improved cardiac tissue constructs have the potential to advance drug discovery and eventually allow for myocardial tissue regeneration, improving the treatment of heart diseases. This review first outlines the major research directions in the treatment of heart diseases, including surgical methods and pharmacological therapies, as well as gene and cell therapy. Afterwards, the review focuses on the use of CNMs in the construction of scaffolds for engineering cardiac tissue constructs, which could offer promising solutions to address the challenges in cell therapy. A series of studies in the past five years have shown that the incorporation of CNMs in tissue scaffolds enhances the survival, retention, organization, and physiological functions of cardiomyocytes. (c) 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.