Phase-Aligned Stimuli-Responsive Electrospun Nanofibers for Post-Myocardial Infarction Repair Publisher



Maboudi A ; Shekari T
Source: Next Materials Published:2026

Abstract

Stimuli-responsive electrospun nanofibers represent a versatile class of functional biomaterials for spatiotemporally controlled therapeutic delivery, yet rational design rules linking material responsiveness to dynamic pathological microenvironments remain poorly defined. Despite advances in guideline-directed medical therapy, systemic anti-fibrotic and pro-angiogenic strategies have demonstrated limited clinical benefit, largely due to poor myocardial retention, rapid degradation, off-target effects, and the inability to align drug delivery with the dynamic post-MI microenvironment temporally. These limitations underscore the need for localized therapeutic platforms capable of phase-specific modulation. Electrospun nanofibers offer distinct advantages for post-MI repair, including extracellular-matrix-mimetic architecture, tunable mechanics, and hierarchical drug compartmentalization. Recent developments in stimuli-responsive nanofibers, engineered to respond to reactive oxygen species (ROS), acidosis, and matrix metalloproteinase (MMP) activity enable on-demand and sequential release aligned with the temporal phases of myocardial remodeling. Rather than providing a descriptive survey of responsive materials, this review establishes phase-aligned design rules that explicitly link post-MI biochemical triggers to nanofiber chemistry, architecture, release kinetics, and therapeutic function. Particular emphasis is placed on dual-function systems that decouple early suppression of pathological fibrosis from delayed promotion of angiogenesis. By integrating mechanistic cardiac biology with rational biomaterial design, this framework aims to support translationally informed development of next-generation nanofiber platforms for myocardial repair. © 2026 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC license. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/