Conductive nanocomposite hydrogel and mesenchymal stem cells for the treatment of myocardial infarction and non-invasive monitoring via PET/CT

BACKGROUND: Injectable hydrogels have great promise in the treatment of myocardial infarction (MI); however, the lack of electromechanical coupling of the hydrogel to the host myocardial tissue and the inability to monitor the implantation may compromise a successful treatment. The introduction of conductive biomaterials and mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) may solve the problem of electromechanical coupling and they have been used to treat MI. In this study, we developed an injectable conductive nanocomposite hydrogel (GNR@SN/Gel) fabricated by gold nanorods (GNRs), synthetic silicate nanoplatelets (SNs), and poly(lactide-co-glycolide)-b-poly (ethylene glycol)-b-poly(lactide-co-glycolide) (PLGA-PEG-PLGA). The hydrogel was used to encapsulate MSCs and (68)Ga(3+) cations, and was then injected into the myocardium of MI rats to monitor the initial hydrogel placement and to study the therapeutic effect via (18)F-FDG myocardial PET imaging. RESULTS: Our data showed that SNs can act as a sterically stabilized protective shield for GNRs, and that mixing SNs with GNRs yields uniformly dispersed and stabilized GNR dispersions (GNR@SN) that meet the requirements of conductive nanofillers. We successfully constructed a thermosensitive conductive nanocomposite hydrogel by crosslinking GNR@SN with PLGA(2000)-PEG(3400)-PLGA(2000), where SNs support the proliferation of MSCs. The cation-exchange capability of SNs was used to adsorb (68)Ga(3+) to locate the implanted hydrogel in myocardium via PET/CT. The combination of MSCs and the conductive hydrogel had a protective effect on both myocardial viability and cardiac function in MI rats compared with controls, as revealed by (18)F-FDG myocardial PET imaging in early and late stages and ultrasound; this was further validated by histopathological investigations. CONCLUSIONS: The combination of MSCs and the GNR@SN/Gel conductive nanocomposite hydrogel offers a promising strategy for MI treatment. GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT: [Image: see text] SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12951-022-01432-7.