A World-First Surgical Instrument for Minimally Invasive Robotically-Enabled Transplantation of Heart Patches for Myocardial Regeneration: A Brief Research Report.

Patch-based approaches to regenerating damaged myocardium include epicardial surgical transplantation of heart patches. By the time this therapy is ready for widespread clinical use, it may be important that patches can be delivered via minimally invasive and robotic surgical approaches. This brief research report describes a world-first minimally invasive patch transplantation surgical device design enabled for human operation, master-slave, and fully automated robotic control.

Printability, Durability, Contractility and Vascular Network Formation in 3D Bioprinted Cardiac Endothelial Cells Using Alginate-Gelatin Hydrogels.

Background: 3D bioprinting cardiac patches for epicardial transplantation are a promising approach for myocardial regeneration. Challenges remain such as quantifying printability, determining the ideal moment to transplant, and promoting vascularisation within bioprinted patches. We aimed to evaluate 3D bioprinted cardiac patches for printability, durability in culture, cell viability, and endothelial cell structural self-organisation into networks.