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In vitro bioreactor for mechanical control and characterization of tissue constructs
Samuel J Coeyman1, Yuhua Zhang2, Catalin F Baicu3
1Department of Bioengineering, Clemson University, Clemson, SC, USA.
Journal of Biomechanics
|January 22, 2023
Summary
A new platform enables mechanical testing of cardiac fibroblast tissue constructs. This technology allows researchers to study cardiac fibrosis and heart failure progression more efficiently in vitro.
Area of Science:
- Biomedical Engineering
- Cardiovascular Research
- Mechanobiology
Background:
- Cardiac fibrosis, characterized by extracellular matrix accumulation from activated cardiac fibroblasts, drives heart failure.
- In vitro studies of cardiac fibroblast activation under mechanical stress have been limited by low-throughput mechanical property assessment.
- Existing stretching platforms lack efficient throughput for mechanical property assessment, hindering mechanobiology studies.
Purpose of the Study:
- To develop a novel in vitro platform for dynamic mechanical stimulation of cell-populated tissue constructs.
- To enable repeatable, non-destructive stress-strain testing of living constructs within the platform.
- To facilitate high-throughput screening applications through simultaneous testing across multi-well plates.
Main Methods:
- Development of a novel in vitro platform for dynamic mechanical stimulation.
- Application of cyclic stretching to 3D fibrin matrix constructs with murine cardiac fibroblasts.
- Simultaneous, non-destructive stress-strain testing of multiple constructs in a multi-well plate format.
- Monitoring of collagen accumulation and tissue stiffness over a three-day period.
Main Results:
- The developed platform successfully applied dynamic mechanical loads to cell-populated tissue constructs.
- Repeatable, non-destructive mechanical analyses were performed on living constructs.
- Cyclic stretching of cardiac fibroblast constructs led to increased collagen accumulation.
- A significant increase in tissue stiffness was observed over a three-day time course.
Conclusions:
- The novel platform effectively enables mechanical stimulation and live mechanical analysis of cell-mediated tissue remodeling.
- This technology provides a high-throughput solution for in vitro mechanobiology studies of cardiac fibrosis.
- The platform has potential for direct, functional readouts in future screening applications for heart failure research.
