A Multimaterial Microphysiological Platform Enabled by Rapid Casting of Elastic Microwires. Issue 5 (9th February 2019)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Zhao, Yimu; Wang, Erika Yan; Davenport, Locke Huyer; Liao, Yin; Yeager, Keith; Vunjak‐Novakovic, Gordana; Radisic, Milica; Zhang, Boyang
• Is Part Of: Advanced healthcare materials. Volume 8:Issue 5(2019)
• Page Start: n/a
• Page End: n/a
• Publication Date: 2019-02-09
• Subjects: cardiac tissue engineering -- drug testing -- organ‐on‐a‐chip -- platforms -- polymer processing; Biomedical materials -- Periodicals; 610.28
• DOI: 10.1002/adhm.201801187
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 2192-2640

Abstract

Abstract: Due to escalating drug developmental costs and limitations of cardiotoxicity screening, there is an urgent need to develop robust in vitro 3D tissue culture platforms that can both facilitate the culture of human cardiac tissues and provide noninvasive functional readouts predictive of cardiotoxicity in clinical settings. However, such platforms commonly require complex fabrication procedures that are difficult to scale up to high‐throughput testing platforms. Here, innovative multimaterial processing into a scalable and functional platform is proposed in the format of a 96‐well plate. Three classes of materials are integrated into the platform. An array of soft elastic microwires is used both as anchors for tissue formation as well as sensors for recording tissue contraction. Conductive carbon electrodes are embedded into the plate to drive electrical stimulation for tissue maturation and pace tissue contraction during drug testing. The bulk of the device is made of rigid polystyrene plastic to eliminate drug‐absorbing polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS). The platform has higher throughput than the current state‐of‐the‐art devices, at a significantly reduced cost of manufacturing and tissue production. Abstract : A scalable, functional, and 96‐well plate compatible platform is presented with innovative multimaterial processing. Three classes of materials are integrated, including built‐in electrodes to drive electrical stimulation for tissue maturation and induce tissue contraction during drug testing; an array of suspended soft elastic microwires used both as anchors for tissue formation and sensors for tissue contraction; tissue culture grade polystyrene.