Engineering anisotropic cardiac monolayers on microelectrode arrays for non-invasive analyses of electrophysiological properties

• DOI: 10.1039/c9an01339c
• Publication Date: 2019-10-22T11:03:45Z
• Authors: Ahmad Alassaf; Gulistan Tansik; Vera Mayo; Laura Wubker; Daniel Carbonero; Ashutosh Agarwal
• Keywords: Cardiac Electrophysiology; Multielectrode array

A standard culture of cardiac cells as unorganized monolayers on tissue plastic or glass does not recapitulate the architectural mechanical properties native myocardium. We investigated physical and protein cues from extracellular matrix to engineer anisotropic tissues highly aligned top microelectrode array (MEA). The MEA platform allows non-invasive measurement beating rate conduction velocity. effect different proteins was tested by using most common in heart, fibronectin gelatin, after aligning myocytes a microcontact (μC) printing technique. Both showed similar electrophysiological results before monolayer began delaminate sixth day culture. Additionally, there were no significant differences 4 between two printed terms sarcomere alignment gap junction expression. To test substrate stiffness, micromolded (μM) gelatin hydrogel fabricated concentrations (20% 2%), corresponding elastic moduli approximately 33 kPa 0.7 kPa, respectively, cover both spectra vivo range Cardiac under conditions beat much more synchronized fashion, exhibited velocity that close physiological value. yielded expression Ultimately, 3D recapitulated myocardial stiffness improved synchronicity neonatal rat ventricular (NRVM) without any stimulation. Identifying such microenvironmental factors will lead future efforts design heart chip platforms mimic environment predict potential cardiotoxicity when testing new drugs.