The team's work was recognized with a special mention in the 2025 César Milstein Awards for biotechnology research with an impact on health. The recognized project was titled “Cardioregenerative Effect of Decellularized Human Amniotic Membrane in a Preclinical Model of Acute Myocardial Infarction.” The project involved Daniela Olea, Alberto Crottogini, María del Rosario Bauzá and Pilar Ferrer through the cardiovascular regenerative medicine laboratory at IMETTyB-Favaloro University-CONICET.
That scientific direction is also supported by previous independent research.
In a peer-reviewed study published in Advanced Healthcare Materials, researchers developed an injectable human amniotic membrane matrix for post-myocardial-infarction tissue repair. The material was engineered to form a thermoresponsive injectable gel, and experiments in rats found improvements in cardiac contractility and reductions in fibrosis.
That does not prove that every amniotic-membrane-derived hydrogel will work in humans.
But it demonstrates why the underlying biological concept is scientifically interesting.
The Argentine project is building on a broader field of regenerative research rather than pursuing an idea without precedent.
What the Gel Is Supposed to Do
The hydrogel being developed by Amnova Biotech is described as a cell-free bioactive platform inspired by human birth tissue.
According to the company and its research partners, the aim is to recreate biological signals that could improve the environment around damaged cardiac tissue.
Several mechanisms are being investigated.
One is vascularization.
After a heart attack, damaged tissue may suffer from inadequate blood supply. Encouraging the development of new blood vessels could potentially improve the delivery of oxygen and nutrients to vulnerable tissue.
Another mechanism is modulation of inflammation.
Inflammation is a necessary component of healing, but excessive or poorly controlled inflammation can contribute to additional tissue damage and unfavorable remodeling. A regenerative biomaterial could potentially help shift the local environment toward a more constructive repair response.
A third target is cellular repair and regeneration.
The researchers are interested in whether the hydrogel can create conditions that support the survival and activity of cardiac cells and stimulate biological processes associated with tissue recovery.
These mechanisms are consistent with the broader scientific literature on cardiac hydrogels.
A recent systematic review and meta-analysis of preclinical studies examined 83 studies involving 1,332 animals, including rats, mice, rabbits, sheep and pigs. The analysis found that combination therapies involving hydrogels were associated with improvements in measures of cardiac function and structure compared with hydrogel treatment alone. At the same time, the authors emphasized the need for further research, particularly in larger animal models, and identified publication bias and methodological limitations in parts of the preclinical literature.
That last point is important.
Promising laboratory results are not the same thing as a proven medical treatment.
From Cells to Animals
One of the most important steps in developing a regenerative therapy is moving beyond cells in a laboratory dish.
A material can behave beautifully in a controlled laboratory experiment and still fail when exposed to the complex environment of a living organism.
The heart is constantly moving.
It contracts thousands of times a day.
It is supplied by a complicated vascular network.
It has electrical activity that must remain coordinated.
And anything injected into the heart must be sufficiently safe, stable and predictable.
For that reason, researchers need to evaluate potential therapies in increasingly sophisticated models.
According to Amnova's description of its development program, preclinical studies have included myocardial-infarction models in sheep. The company reports improvements in cardiac function, reductions in infarct size and increases in new blood-vessel formation and cardiac-cell proliferation approximately 28 days after treatment.
These findings are encouraging, but they should be interpreted in the correct context.
Animal studies are designed to answer questions about biological activity and safety before a therapy is considered for human testing.
They cannot establish that the same effect will occur in people.
Many treatments that appear promising in animals ultimately fail during human development because of differences in biology, dosing, safety, delivery, manufacturing or effectiveness.
That is why the phrase “preclinical” matters so much.
It means the research has not yet crossed the critical boundary into demonstrating safety and efficacy in human patients.
Why Sheep Matter in Cardiac Research
The use of sheep in preclinical cardiovascular research is not accidental.
Large-animal models can provide researchers with a heart that is much closer in scale and physiology to the human heart than the hearts of small laboratory rodents.
This makes them useful for studying questions that are difficult to reproduce in mice or rats, including the mechanics of injection, tissue response and changes in cardiac function.
However, even large-animal studies cannot fully predict what will happen in humans.
Before a therapy can reach patients, researchers must still establish a reproducible manufacturing process, characterize the material, demonstrate appropriate safety and satisfy regulatory requirements.
Clinical trials then have to answer an entirely different set of questions.
Does the treatment remain safe in humans?
What dose should be used?
Where exactly should it be injected?
How long does the material remain in the heart?
Does it produce meaningful improvements in heart function?
Does it reduce complications?
And perhaps most importantly:
Does the potential benefit outweigh the risks?