Multi-electrode monitoring of guided excitation in patterned cardiomyocytes

Abstract

Guided excitation in patterned cardiomyocytes was analysed by extracellular recording of field potentials with a commercial device of multi-electrode array (MEA). In order to define fibronectin patterns on the MEA surface, microcontact printing was performed with a microscope-based alignment system. Cardiomyocytes were harvested from neonatal rats and then cultured on the patterned device. After 3days, cell stripes were formed, allowing guided excitation along each of the cell stripes. Increasing the culture time from 3 to 5days improved the beating repeatability without changing the quality of the electric conduction. More detailed analyses revealed that the excitation propagation along a cell stripe was sensitive to the cell coupling defects which could be modified by adding drugs in the culture medium during the early stage of the pattern formation. Our results suggest that extracellular recordings with patterned MEAs are reliable for quantitative analyses of guided excitation of cardiomyocytes.