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Engineering Shape-Controlled Microtissues on Compliant Hydrogels with Tunable Rigidity and Extracellular Matrix
Megan L Rexius-Hall1, Nethika R Ariyasinghe1,2, Megan L McCain3,4
1Laboratory for Living Systems Engineering, Department of Biomedical Engineering, USC Viterbi School of Engineering, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
Methods in Molecular Biology (Clifton, N.J.)
|December 19, 2020
Summary
Researchers developed a novel method to engineer aligned cardiac microtissues on polyacrylamide hydrogels, mimicking native heart tissue for disease modeling. This scalable approach enables study of cell-matrix interactions and tissue contractility.
Area of Science:
- Biomedical Engineering
- Tissue Engineering
- Cardiovascular Research
Background:
- In vitro models are crucial for understanding tissue development and disease.
- The native myocardium features aligned cardiac myocytes, supporting cells, and an extracellular matrix (ECM).
- Cell-cell and cell-matrix interactions significantly regulate myocardial physiology and pathophysiology.
Purpose of the Study:
- To present a protocol for engineering aligned cardiac microtissues on polyacrylamide hydrogels.
- To mimic the alignment, cell-cell interactions, and mechanical properties of native myocardium.
- To provide a versatile platform for studying cardiac development and disease.
Main Methods:
- Fabrication of elastomer stamps with microtissue patterns.
- Preparation of polyacrylamide hydrogel substrates with tunable elastic moduli.
- Microcontact printing of ECM proteins onto hydrogel surfaces for cell seeding.
Main Results:
- Engineered square, aligned cardiac microtissues on tunable hydrogels.
- Successful seeding with cardiac myocytes or mixed cell populations (myocytes and fibroblasts).
- Hydrogel platform compatible with traction force microscopy for contractility assessment.
Conclusions:
- The described method offers a reproducible and scalable approach to create shape-controlled microtissues.
- This technique effectively recapitulates key aspects of myocardial tissue architecture and microenvironment.
- The versatile methodology has potential applications beyond cardiac tissue modeling for other organ systems.
