Biomaterial Spray Painting Method to Save Hearts

In North Carolina, researchers from University of North Carolina and other colleges involved in the project created a device to spray paint biomaterial onto hearts to create a regenerative cardiac patch and help repair the heart. Biomaterials have been used for cardiac patches with heart attack patients for a while, but it usually involves open-heart surgery. With this new spray paint tool that looks like a caulking gun with a long thin needle at the end, there is no need for stitches or glue. This makes it not as invasive as usual methods for cardiac patients and helps patients avoid the traumatic and long hospital stays associated with open-heart surgery. The biomaterial can easily be sprayed on in clinics and forms a non-toxic platelet fibrin gel that degrades over time helping the heart heal.