Biohybrid thin films for measuring contractility in engineered cardiovascular muscle.
In vitro cardiovascular disease models need to recapitulate tissue-scale function in order to provide in vivo relevance. We have developed a new method for measuring the contractility of engineered cardiovascular smooth and striated muscle in vitro during electrical and pharmacological stimulation. We present a growth theory-based finite elasticity analysis for calculating the contractile stresses of a 2D anisotropic muscle tissue cultured on a flexible synthetic polymer thin film. Cardiac muscle engineered with neonatal rat ventricular myocytes and paced at 0.5 Hz generated stresses of 9.2 +/- 3.5 kPa at peak systole, similar to measurements of the contractility of papillary muscle from adult rats. Vascular tissue engineered with human umbilical arterial smooth muscle cells maintained a basal contractile tone of 13.1 +/- 2.1 kPa and generated another 5.1 +/- 0.8 kPa when stimulated with endothelin-1. These data suggest that this method may be useful in assessing the efficacy and safety of pharmacological agents on cardiovascular tissue.
Alford
Patrick W
PW
Disease Biophysics Group, Harvard Stem Cell Institute, Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering, School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA.
Feinberg
Adam W
AW
Sheehy
Sean P
SP
Parker
Kevin K
KK
D000818:Animals; D000831:Animals, Newborn; D004129:Dimethylpolysiloxanes; D018625:Microscopy, Atomic Force; D009200:Myocardial Contraction; D009206:Myocardium; D051381:Rats; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley; D023822:Tissue Engineering
D004129:Dimethylpolysiloxanes; C013830:baysilon