High-throughput rhythmic regulation of cardiomyocytes by integrated electrical stimulation and video-based automated...

In cardiac tissue engineering, electric stimulation is an efficient approach to improve the formation of cardiac tissue from individual cardiomyocyte. The regulation conditions of electric stimulation should be screened in an efficient way. However, the lack of high-throughput and large-scale assessment platforms limited the effectively screen the regulation conditions. Here, we develop a high-throughput integrated electrical stimulation system to rhythmically regulate the cardiomyocytes in situ. The state of regulated cardiomyocytes is characterized by a video-based automated biosensing system to analyze the beating of cardiomyocytes. Electrical stimulation conditions are optimized to regulate the cardiomyocyte state in vitro to replace the complex bioactive molecules and materials. By the video analysis, the accurate beating rate and regularity of cardiomyocyte can be determined. The results show that electrical stimulation frequency is a significant factor to regulate the cardiomyocyte beating. The electrical stimulation with a frequency of 3 Hz can effectively regulate the primary rat cardiomyocytes with normal rhythm. This high-throughput electrical stimulation and a video-based automated biosensing system will be a promising and powerful tool to effectively optimize the regulation conditions of cardiomyocyte in vitro, and possess broad application prospects in cardiac tissue engineering and pharmaceutical industry.