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Updated: Aug 13, 2026
Designing a Bioreactor to Improve Data Acquisition and Model Throughput of Engineered Cardiac Tissues
Published on: June 2, 2023
Biomechanics-guided engineering of in vitro cardiac tissues for mechanical function reconstruction
Tian Xia1, Dongrui Zhang2, Yuehong Zheng3
1Key Laboratory of Biomechanics and Mechanobiology (Beihang University), Ministry of Education, Key Laboratory of Innovation and Transformation of Advanced Medical Devices, Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, National Medical Innovation Platform for Industry-Education Integration in Advanced Medical Devices (Interdiscipline of Medicine and Engineering), School of Biological Science and Medical Engineering, Beihang University, Beijing, 100191, China.
Engineering functional cardiac tissues requires integrating biomechanics with biomaterial design and fabrication. This review proposes a framework to guide the development of cardiac tissues with predictable mechanical function for better disease modeling and drug testing.
Area of Science:
- Biomedical Engineering
- Cardiovascular Research
- Tissue Engineering
Background:
- Engineered cardiac tissues are crucial for disease modeling and drug evaluation.
- Physiologically meaningful function requires more than just cellular composition and 3D architecture.
- Native myocardial performance depends on complex mechanical properties like stiffness, anisotropy, and viscoelasticity.
Purpose of the Study:
- To integrate myocardial mechanics, computational modeling, biomaterial design, and biofabrication.
- To provide a biomechanics-guided framework for engineering cardiac tissues.
- To improve the predictability of mechanical function and reproducibility of disease/drug response in engineered cardiac tissues.
Main Methods:
- Review of multiscale structural determinants of myocardial mechanics.
- Critical comparison of various cardiac tissue models (cellular, continuum, phenomenological, etc.).
- Framework for translating model-derived mechanical descriptors into biomaterial properties and fabrication protocols.
Main Results:
- Identified key mechanical properties (active stress, stiffness, anisotropy, relaxation) crucial for cardiac tissue function.
- Demonstrated how computational biomechanics can inform biomaterial design, scaffold architecture, and fabrication processes.
- Highlighted emerging AI and digital twin approaches for adaptive and patient-relevant tissue models.
Conclusions:
- Computational biomechanics serves as a vital tool for designing and validating engineered cardiac tissues.
- A systematic approach is needed to ensure predictable mechanical function and reliable experimental readouts.
- Integrating biomechanics principles enhances the utility of engineered cardiac tissues for research and clinical applications.
