Towards chamber specific heart-on-a-chip for drug testing applications

Area of Science:

• Biomedical Engineering
• Cardiovascular Research
• Regenerative Medicine

Background:

• Animal models are standard for drug discovery but have limitations due to species differences.
• Organ-on-a-chip technology offers a promising alternative for human disease and therapeutic modeling.
• Replicating the human heart's complexity in vitro, including chamber orientation and electrical function, remains a significant challenge.

Purpose of the Study:

• To review advancements in heart-on-a-chip technology for modeling the human heart.
• To highlight the potential of these models in drug discovery and understanding cardiac diseases.
• To outline current challenges in developing physiologically relevant human heart models.

Main Methods:

• Utilizing induced pluripotent stem cell differentiation to generate diverse cardiac cell types (atrial, ventricular, nodal, Purkinje).
• Incorporating biological, electrical, mechanical, and topographical cues to promote tissue maturation.
• Developing biofabrication techniques to create functional cardiac constructs.

Main Results:

• Progress in generating patient-specific cardiac cells and tissues.
• Integration of multiple cues enhances the functional complexity and predictive power of heart-on-a-chip models.
• Improved recapitulation of chamber-specific and electrical properties of the human heart.

Conclusions:

• Heart-on-a-chip technology, powered by iPSCs and advanced biofabrication, is advancing cardiac modeling.
• These models show potential to improve the accuracy of preclinical drug testing and disease research.
• Further development is needed to fully address the complexities of human heart physiology in vitro.