Developing 3D Organized Human Cardiac Tissue within a Microfluidic Platform

Summary

The goal of this protocol is to explain and demonstrate the development of a three-dimensional (3D) microfluidic model of highly aligned human cardiac tissue, composed of stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes co-cultured with cardiac fibroblasts (CFs) within a biomimetic, collagen-based hydrogel, for applications in cardiac tissue engineering, drug screening, and disease modeling.

Abstract

The leading cause of death worldwide persists as cardiovascular disease (CVD). However, modeling the physiological and biological complexity of the heart muscle, the myocardium, is notoriously difficult to accomplish in vitro. Mainly, obstacles lie in the need for human cardiomyocytes (CMs) that are either adult or exhibit adult-like phenotypes and can successfully replicate the myocardium's cellular complexity and intricate 3D architecture. Unfortunately, due to ethical concerns and lack of available primary patient-derived human cardiac tissue, combined with the minimal proliferation of CMs, the sourcing of viable human CMs has been a limiting step for cardiac tissue engineering. To this end, most research has transitioned toward cardiac differentiation of human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) as the primary source of human CMs, resulting in the wide incorporation of hiPSC-CMs within in vitro assays for cardiac tissue modeling.

Here in this work, we demonstrate a protocol for developing a 3D mature stem cell-derived human cardiac tissue within a microfluidic device. We specifically explain and visually demonstrate the production of a 3D in vitro anisotropic cardiac tissue-on-a-chip model from hiPSC-derived CMs. We primarily describe a purification protocol to select for CMs, the co-culture of cells with a defined ratio via mixing CMs with human CFs (hCFs), and suspension of this co-culture within the collagen-based hydrogel. We further demonstrate the injection of the cell-laden hydrogel within our well-defined microfluidic device, embedded with staggered elliptical microposts that serve as surface topography to induce a high degree of alignment of the surrounding cells and the hydrogel matrix, mimicking the architecture of the native myocardium. We envision that the proposed 3D anisotropic cardiac tissue-on-chip model is suitable for fundamental biology studies, disease modeling, and, through its use as a screening tool, pharmaceutical testing.

Introduction

Tissue engineering approaches have been widely explored, in recent years, to accompany in vivo clinical findings in regenerative medicine and disease modeling^1,2. Significant emphasis has been particularly placed on in vitro cardiac tissue modeling due to the inherent difficulties in sourcing human primary cardiac tissue and producing physiologically relevant in vitro surrogates, limiting the fundamental understanding of the complex mechanisms of cardiovascular diseases (CVDs)^1,3. Traditional models have often involved 2D mon....

Protocol

Perform all cell handling and reagent preparation within a Biosafety Cabinet. Ensure all surfaces, materials, and equipment that come into contact with cells are sterile (i.e., spray down with 70% ethanol). Cells should be cultured in a humidified 37 °C, 5% CO₂ incubator. All hiPSC culture and differentiation is performed in 6-well plates.

1. Microfluidic device creation (approximate duration: 1 week)

1. Photolithography
   NOTE: The mask, designed.......

Discussion

The formation of an in vitro human cardiac tissue model with enhanced cell-cell interactions and biomimetic 3D structure is imperative for basic cardiovascular research and corresponding clinical applications¹. This outlined protocol explains the development of 3D human anisotropic cardiac tissue within a microfluidic device, using co-culture of stem cell-derived CMs with connective CFs encapsulated within a collagen hydrogel, serving to model the complex cell composition and structure of.......

Materials

Name	Company	Catalog Number	Comments
0.65 mL centrifuge tubes	VWR	87003-290
1 mm Biopsy punch	VWR	95039-090
1.5 mm Biopsy punch	VWR	95039-088
15 mL Falcon tubes	VWR	89039-670
18x18mm coverslips	VWR	16004-308	The coverslips should be No.1, to allow for high magnification imaging
4% paraformaldehyde	ThermoFisher	101176-014
6-well flat botttom tissue-culture plates	VWR	82050-844
B27 minus insulin	LifeTech	A1895602
B27 plus insulin	LifeTech	17504001
CHIR99021	VWR	10188-030
Collagen I, rat tail	Corning	47747-218
DMEM F12	ThermoFisher	11330057
DPBS	ThermoFisher	21600069
E8	ThermoFisher	A1517001	can also be made in house
EDTA	VWR	45001-122
Ethanol
FGM3	VWR	10172-048
GFR-Matrigel	VWR	47743-718
Glycine	Sigma	G8898-500G
Goat serum	VWR	10152-212
hESC-Matrigel	Corning	BD354277
IPA
IWP2	Sigma	I0536-5MG
Kimwipes	VWR	82003-820
MTCS	Sigma	440299-1L
NaN3	Sigma	S2002-25G
NaOH	Sigma	S5881-500G
Pen/Strep	VWR	15140122
Petri dish (150x15mm)	VWR	25384-326
Petri dish (60x15mm)	VWR	25384-092
Phenol Red	Sigma	P3532-5G
RPMI 1640	ThermoFisher	MT10040CM
RPMI 1640 minus glucose	VWR	45001-110
Silicon Wafers (100mm)	University Wafer	1196
Sodium lactate	Sigma	L4263-100ML
SU8 2075	Microchem	Y111074 0500L1GL
SU8 Developer	ThermoFisher	NC9901158
Sylgard Elastomer	Essex Brownell	DC-184-1.1
T75 flasks	VWR	82050-856
Triton X-100	Sigma	T8787-100ML
TrypLE	ThermoFisher	12604021
Trypsin-EDTA (0.5%)	ThermoFisher	15400054
Tween20	Sigma	P9416-50ML
Y-27632	Stem Cell Technologies	72304
EVG620 Aligner	EVG
Plasma cleaner PDC-32G	Harrick Plasma
Zeiss AxioObserver Z1 microscope	Nikon
Leica SP8 Confocal microscope	Leica