A human hair-based platform for long-term maintenance of 3D engineered cardiac tissues in vitro

Abstract

In vitro cardiac models constructed with human cardiomyocytes and appropriate biomaterial scaffolds are still in pressing need for drug testing and disease modeling. Here, we describe a platform based on human hair to generate 3D cardiac tissues, termed cardiowire, from human induced pluripotent stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes. The cardiowire was cultivated for an extended period of time (up to 118 days). To monitor the contractile motion of the cardiac tissue, video-based analysis was performed throughout the time course of cultivation. After an appreciably long time (52 days) of culture, the cardiowire remained its strong contractility. Although the gel compaction went on with time, the width of the cardiowire was as large as 1 mm after 100 days. Moreover, it was demonstrated that human hair not only could support cell attachment, but also had long-term mechanical strength to sustain the highly repetitive mechanical stress of the cardiac tissue contraction. This platform could be easily combined with electrical and mechanical stimulation and serve as an in vitro cardiac model for drug screening and other therapeutic applications.