

Myocardial Infarction (MI) accounts for 50% of all Cardiovascular Heart Disease (CVHD)-related mortality and morbidity in the developing world. The transplantation of Bone Marrow derived Stromal/Stem Cells (BMSCs) cultured on such a nanomatrix has potential applications in regenerative therapy for Myocardial Infarction (MI). We also demonstrated the cardiomyogenic differentiation and angiogenic potential of cardiogel even in the absence of any external growth factors. We report several important proteins differentially identified between cardiogel and mesogel, which can explain the biological properties of cardiogel. In conclusion, we developed a reproducible method for efficient extraction and solubilization of in vitro cultured cell-derived extracellular matrix. We observed that cardiogel also promoted cell proliferation, adhesion and migration while enhancing cardiomyogenic differentiation and angiogenesis. The results of these analyses revealed significant differences in their respective compositions and 17 significant ECM/matricellular proteins were differentially identified between cardiogel and mesogel. These proteins were then analyzed using surfactant-assisted in-solution digestion followed by nano-liquid chromatography and tandem mass spectrometry (nLC-MS/MS). The proteins were sequentially solubilized using acetic acid, Sodium Dodecyl Sulfate (SDS) and Dithiothreitol (DTT). An optimized protocol was developed that resulted in efficient decellularization while providing the maximum yield of ECM. To determine the matrix composition and identify significant proteins in cardiogel, we investigated the differences in the composition of this nanomatrix and a BMSC-derived ECM scaffold, termed as ‘mesogel’. Cardiogel, a cardiac fibroblast-derived Extracellular Matrix (ECM) has been previously shown to promote cardiomyogenic differentiation of BMSCs and provide protection against oxidative stress. 3-Dimensional conditions for the culture of Bone Marrow-derived Stromal/Stem Cells (BMSCs) can be generated with scaffolds of biological origin.
