Disclosed is a patch system for use in a patient with a damaged heart. The patch comprises both a biodegradable engineered collagen scaffold to provide structural support to the injured heart and therapeutic agents, which are delivered by the patch to the heart. The scaffold consists of a dense collagen lamella produced by plastic compression with biomechanical properties that make it compatible with beating heart tissue, e.g. stiffness in a predefined range. One therapeutic agent, Fstl1, is shown to induce cardiomyocyte proliferation and enhance cardiac regeneration after injury. The patch can also be loaded with functionalized nanoparticles to yield multi-modal imaging capabilities in vivo. Also disclosed is a method for implanting the patch onto a patients heart.
