ac0507800_si_001.mpg (4.16 MB)
Real-Time Measurement of the Contractile Forces of Self-Organized Cardiomyocytes on Hybrid Biopolymer Microcantilevers
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posted on 2005-10-15, 00:00 authored by Jungyul Park, Jaewook Ryu, Seung Kyu Choi, Eunseok Seo, Jae Min Cha, Seokchang Ryu, Jinseok Kim, Byungkyu Kim, Sang Ho LeeWe present a microfabricated hybrid biopolymer microcantilever, in which the contractile force of self-organized
cardiomyocytes can be measured and studied, as a
prototype for the development of cell-driven actuators. The
microcantilever is made of a flexible, transparent, biocompatible poly(dimethylsiloxane) substrate, using a simple
microfabrication technique. Seeding and culturing cardiomyocytes on the specific cantilever allows us to perform
highly sensitive, quantitative, and noninvasive measurement of the contractile force of the self-organized cells in
real time. The motions of the microcantilever showed good
agreement with an analytical solution based on Stoney's
equation and finite element modeling (FEM) of the hybrid
system. Immunostaining of the cells on the hybrid system
showed continuous high-order coalignment of actin filaments and parallel sarcomeric organization in the direction of the longitudinal axis of the microcantilever without
structural constraints, such as microgrooves or lines, and
proved our FEM and the synchronous contraction of
cardiomyocytes. The presented device should facilitate
measurement of the contractile force of self-organized
cardiomyocytes on a specific area, which may help the
understanding of heart failure and the design of optimal
hybrid biopolymer actuators, as well as assist development of a microscale cell-driven motor system.