Control of cardiomyocyte orientation on a microscaffold fabricated by photopolymerization with laser beam...

We fabricate scaffolds with a fine linear grating (periodicity of 1 to 8 microm and height of 1 microm) on a glass substrate for controlling cardiomyocyte orientation. The fabrication is done by the solidification of a liquid photopolymerizable material using two laser beam interference. As the photopolymerizable material, we use acrylated trimethylene-carbonate-based oligomers initiated with trimethylolpropane (T/TMP), followed by acrylation at terminal ends. Rat cardiomyocytes cultured on the fabricated scaffolds exhibit cell elongation, orientation, and contraction along the scaffold grating. Fluorescence observation of bundles of actin filaments of the cultured cells show that the cytoskeleton of the cells is also generated and oriented parallel to the grating. With a change in grating periodicity from 8 to 1 microm, the percentage of the cells that show orientation along the grating increase from approximately 40 to 70%. The cell orientation along the grating is observed 18 h after seeding the cells on the scaffold. This result implies that the attachment between a cell and a well-defined microarchitectural substrate at an early stage of culture is a significant determinant of cell morphology.