Myocardial mechanics displaying on visual structural color hydrogel microcolumn arrays

Cellular mechanics play significant roles in biological processes from cellular level to tissue level. Great efforts have been committed to developing simple and reliable mechanical sensing strategies. Here, we present the concept of cellular mechanics displaying on visual structural color hydrogel microcolumn arrays. The microcolumn arrays were fabricated by using colloidal crystal pregel to hierarchically replicate microwell array templates. With the cultivation of beating cardiomyocytes, the microcolumn arrays could occur synchronous and reversible deformations, accompanied with visible structural color changes and reflection peak shifts for cellular mechanics displaying. Benefitting from this principle, together with the similar dimension with cells, the structural color microcolumn arrays could self-report the contraction force of cardiomyocytes at single-cell level. Based on these features, we have established a myocardial hypertrophy model in microfluidic systems and verify the value of the structural color hydrogel microcolumn arrays in monitoring the mechanical behaviors of cardiomyocytes under pathological conditions. Thus, we believe that the proposed structural color hydrogel microcolumn arrays and their integrated chips are suitable for evaluating clinical diseases of aberrant cellular force and even providing possible therapeutic targets.