Flexible Sensing Technology for Myocardial Tissue Contractile Force With Integrated Magnetically Actuated Mechanical...

Area of Science:

• Biomedical Engineering
• Cardiovascular Research
• Tissue Engineering

Background:

• Organ-on-a-chip platforms are crucial for in vitro cardiac modeling.
• Mechanical stimulation improves cardiac tissue maturation and function.
• Integrating mechanical stimulation with real-time contractile monitoring is challenging.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop an integrated platform for cardiac tissue engineering.
• To combine programmable mechanical stimulation with real-time contractile force monitoring.
• To overcome limitations in current cardiac stimulation and sensing technologies.

Main Methods:

• Developed a platform using aligned fiber scaffolds for 3D cardiac tissue formation.
• Employed a wireless tunable magnetic actuation unit for mechanical stimulation.
• Integrated a flexible liquid metal-based sensor for real-time contractile force detection.

Main Results:

• Enhanced sarcomeric structure by 42.9% and contractile force by 47.5%.
• Achieved a minimum detectable force of 1.52 µN with the liquid metal sensor.
• Successfully integrated mechanical stimulation and real-time monitoring in a single platform.

Conclusions:

• The developed platform effectively enhances cardiac tissue maturation and function.
• Real-time monitoring of contractile force is feasible with high sensitivity.
• This integrated system advances cardiac tissue engineering for drug screening and disease modeling.