Instrumented cardiac microphysiological devices via multimaterial three-dimensional printing

Heart-on-a-chip devices with integrated strain gauges for direct readout of tissue contractile strength allow for multiplexed drug-dose experiments and studies of functional maturation of cardiac tissue. Biomedical research has relied on animal studies and conventional cell cultures for decades. Rec...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Nature materials 2017-03, Vol.16 (3), p.303-308
Main Authors: Lind, Johan U., Busbee, Travis A., Valentine, Alexander D., Pasqualini, Francesco S., Yuan, Hongyan, Yadid, Moran, Park, Sung-Jin, Kotikian, Arda, Nesmith, Alexander P., Campbell, Patrick H., Vlassak, Joost J., Lewis, Jennifer A., Parker, Kevin K.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
3-D printers
631/1647/277
631/61/2035
639/166/985
639/301/1005/1009
639/301/54/994
Biomaterials
Biomedical engineering
Condensed Matter Physics
Devices
Drugs
Electronics
Fabrication
Heart
Human behavior
Laminar
letter
Materials Science
Medical equipment
Myocardium - cytology
Nanotechnology
Optical and Electronic Materials
Printing, Three-Dimensional - instrumentation
Self assembly
Sensors
Stem cells
Three dimensional printing
Tissue Array Analysis - instrumentation
Tissue engineering
Tissues
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Description
Summary:Heart-on-a-chip devices with integrated strain gauges for direct readout of tissue contractile strength allow for multiplexed drug-dose experiments and studies of functional maturation of cardiac tissue. Biomedical research has relied on animal studies and conventional cell cultures for decades. Recently, microphysiological systems (MPS), also known as organs-on-chips, that recapitulate the structure and function of native tissues in vitro , have emerged as a promising alternative 1 . However, current MPS typically lack integrated sensors and their fabrication requires multi-step lithographic processes 2 . Here, we introduce a facile route for fabricating a new class of instrumented cardiac microphysiological devices via multimaterial three-dimensional (3D) printing. Specifically, we designed six functional inks, based on piezo-resistive, high-conductance, and biocompatible soft materials that enable integration of soft strain gauge sensors within micro-architectures that guide the self-assembly of physio-mimetic laminar cardiac tissues. We validated that these embedded sensors provide non-invasive, electronic readouts of tissue contractile stresses inside cell incubator environments. We further applied these devices to study drug responses, as well as the contractile development of human stem cell-derived laminar cardiac tissues over four weeks.
ISSN:1476-1122
1476-4660
DOI:10.1038/nmat4782