AccScience Publishing / IJB / Online First / DOI: 10.36922/IJB026250260
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RESEARCH ARTICLE
Early Access

Alginate-gelatin-silk fibroin-containing patches improve cardiac function in an in vivo myocardial infarction murine model

Laura Vettori1,2 Ashton Matthee1,2 Clara Chung Ming Liu1,2 Niina Matthews1,2 Dominik Beck1 Timothy Couttas3 Hien Ahn Tran4 Jelena Rnjak-Kovacina4 Carmine Gentile1,2*
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1 Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology, University of Technology Sydney, Ultimo, NSW 2007, Australia
2 Cardiovascular Regeneration Group, The Heart Research Institute, Newtown, NSW 2042 Australia
3 Brain and Mind Centre, The University of Sydney, Ultimo, NSW 2006, Australia
4 Graduate School of Biomedical Engineering, University of New South Wales, Kensington, NSW 2052, Australia
Received: 19 June 2026 | Revised: 16 July 2026 | Accepted: 20 July 2026 | Published online: 20 July 2026
© 2026 by the Author(s). This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License ( https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ )
Abstract

Transplantation of patches based on alginate and gelatin biomaterials represents a promising approach for improving cardiac function in vivo. To enhance the long-term durability and mechanical properties of alginate-gelatin patches, silk fibroin was added to the formulation, and 3D printed alginate-gelatin-silk fibroin patches without cells were transplanted into an in vivo myocardial infarction murine model. The focus of this study is to evaluate whether the addition of silk fibroin to alginate-gelatin hydrogels can protect against the reduction in cardiac function after myocardial infarction. Mice were divided into four experimental groups: sham, myocardial infarction, myocardial infarction with the transplanted alginate-gelatin patch and myocardial infarction with the transplanted alginate-gelatin-silk fibroin patches. The ultrasound analyses confirmed that silk fibroin-containing patches increase the left ventricular ejection fraction % by 20% in infarcted mice. Furthermore, histological and transcriptomic analyses demonstrate that alginate-gelatin-silk fibroin patches stimulate tissue-repairing processes, reduce cardiac fibrosis, increase cardiac remodeling and inflammatory-regulating gene expression, and recapitulate cardiac function and tissue homeostasis in myocardial infarction mice. Altogether, our in vivo findings support the biofabrication of advanced cardiac tissues containing alginate-gelatin-silk fibroin for tissue engineering and regenerative medicine, representing a potential therapeutic approach for patients with myocardial infarction.

Keywords
Silk fibroin
Hydrogels
Biofabrication
Myocardial infarction
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International Journal of Bioprinting, Electronic ISSN: 2424-8002 Print ISSN: 2424-7723, Published by AccScience Publishing