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RESEARCH ARTICLE

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 School of Electrical, Mechanical and Biomedical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology, University of Technology Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales , Australia
2 Cardiovascular Regeneration Group, The Heart Research Institute, Sydney, New South Wales , Australia
3 Brain and Mind Centre, The University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales , Australia
4 Graduate School of Biomedical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, University of New South Wales, Sydney, New South Wales , Australia
IJB, 026250260 https://doi.org/10.36922/IJB026250260
Received: 19 June 2026 | Revised: 16 July 2026 | Accepted: 20 July 2026 | Published online: 20 July 2026
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Biopolymer-based biomaterial inks: from formulation to applications)
© 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/ )
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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.

Graphical abstract
Keywords
Silk fibroin
Hydrogels
Biofabrication
Myocardial infarction
Funding
The University of Technology Sydney supported Dr. Laura Vettori with the International Research Scholarship and UTS President’s Scholarships. Dr. Ashton Matthee was supported by a Heart Research Institute Fellowship. Associate Prof. Carmine Gentile was supported by a UTS Seed Funding, a Heart Research Australia Grant, a 2022, a 2023, a 2024, a 2025, and a 2026 Perpetual IMPACT Grant, and a Catholic Archdiocese of Sydney Grant for Adult Stem Cell Research. Dr. Hien A. Tran was supported by the Vingroup Science and Technology Scholarship Program.
Conflict of interest
The authors declare they have no competing interests.
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International Journal of Bioprinting, Electronic ISSN: 2424-8002 Print ISSN: 2424-7723, Published by AccScience Publishing
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