‘Heart plaster’ to stop children needing repeated heart surgeries
Professor Massimo Caputo – University of Bristol
We’ve awarded £750,000 to BHF Professor Massimo Caputo at the University of Bristol to develop a new revolutionary type of ‘heart plaster’ that could improve the way surgeons treat children living with congenital heart disease.
Children born with holes between the two pumping chambers of the heart or abnormalities to the valves often require heart reconstruction surgery using grafts. However, the grafts currently used are non-biological and rigid, meaning as the child grows, they can quickly fail.
Professor Caputo and his team have developed a new type of living graft containing mesenchymal cells. These cells have the ability to change into a range of different cell types and could boost the repair of heart tissue without being rejected by the child’s body.
These patches, designed to be sewn into the affected area during surgery, have the potential to adapt and grow with the child’s heart as they get older, removing the need for repeated surgeries.
This BHF-funded research project was shortlisted for the category of BHF Media Award 2023 - Research Story of the Year as part the BHF Heart Hero Awards 2023.
All information in this video was correct at the time of publishing.
For more information about the BHF Heart Hero Awards visit https://www.bhf.org.uk/heartheroes
If you’ve been inspired by this research project and would like to help fund our lifesaving science, then please visit https://www.bhf.org.uk/hhadonate
