A Combined Synthetic-Fibrin Scaffold Supports Growth and Cardiomyogenic Commitment of Human Placental Derived Stem Cells

Aims: A potential therapy for myocardial infarction is to deliver isolated stem cells to the infarcted site. A key issue with this therapy is to have at one's disposal a suitable cell delivery system which, besides being able to support cell proliferation and differentiation, may also provide handling and elastic properties which do not affect cardiac contractile function. In this study an elastic scaffold, obtained combining a poly(ether) urethane-polydimethylsiloxane (PEtU-PDMS) semi-interpenetrating polymeric network (s-IPN) with fibrin, was used as a substrate for in vitro studies of human amniotic mesenchymal stromal cells (hAMSC) growth and differentiation.