Development of Epicardial Devices for the Support of Cardiac Function in Patients with Myocardial Infarction and Heart Failure

Abstract

The administration of biomaterial-based therapies to the infarcted ventricle wall by currently available approaches is often associated with several issues impairing the final performance of the applied therapeutic agents. As the epicardium has been identified as region with vast regenerative potential, it is supposed to represent a reasonable target for the support of the weakened myocardium after a myocardial infarct. However, targeted local delivery of biomaterial-based therapies to the dynamic epicardial heart surface in a non-surgical procedure represents a remarkable challenge due to limitations imposed by the biomaterials and regenerative agents, especially in case of stem cell technologies. Hence, this PhD thesis aims to address current limitations for the delivery of biomaterials to well-defined regions on the epicardium by developing novel advanced application strategies for biomaterial-based therapies to the epicardial heart surface. These novel delivery devices intend to provide the opportunity to better exploit the potential of applied therapeutic agents and reduce application associated deleterious effects.