Evaluating the Long-Term Impact of Cardiac Regenerative Therapies

A computational model has been developed to gain a better understanding of the mechanisms of cardiac regenerative therapies.

Myocardial infarction (MI) is the most common form of heart disease, and results in the permanent loss of contractile function in the infarcted region. Recently, cardiac regenerative therapies have piqued the interest of researchers as a potential means to restore the contractile function in these patients.

In order to gain more knowledge on these therapies, a team of researchers from MSU, Simula Research Laboratory, and ETH Zurich developed the new model. Current heart models are only able to simulate the immediate effects of therapy; however, the newly developed model has the ability to simulate the long-term effects of these therapies.

Researchers found the results from the model are consistent with the findings in other clinical studies, and the new model is currently being used to investigate more treatment parameters to optimize therapy.