journal article·2025-07-08

Mechanically Matched Heart-on-a-Chip Platform Mediated Maturation of Excitation–Contraction Coupling

Junlei Han, Xingyuan Xu, Jianhua Li, Haiyan Zhang, Weiguang Su, Ke Wang, Huimin Li, Zhipeng Xu, Jun Chen, Xinxia Cai, Yu Sun, Li Wang

ACS Nano· Volume 19· Issue 26
Publisher page

Abstract

Heart-on-a-chip (HOC) platforms play a pivotal role in cardiac research, yet existing models suffer from mechanical mismatch between the soft myocardial tissue, sensors, and substrate, leading to impaired myocardial function and compromised data capture. Here, we introduce a mechanically matched HOC to address these challenges by mimicking the Young's modulus of the myocardial bilayer, including the elastic epicardium (30-70 kPa) and soft extracellular matrix (28-37 kPa). A process based on liquid-gas phase transition-induced porosification was developed, which introduces porosity into polydimethylsiloxane through controlled tetradecane phase transition, allowing for a tunable reduction in Young's modulus. This platform demonstrated excellent durability, withstanding over 1,000,000 stretch cycles, and allowed continuous electromechanical monitoring of cardiomyocyte behavior for 11 days. The mechanically matched platform promoted significant upregulation of key genes linked to cell adhesion, contraction, and electrical propagation (e.g., ITGA1, CACNA1C, SCN5A, and KCNH2) and enhanced excitation-contraction coupling by 128% compared to mismatched models. Additionally, the integration of machine learning into the HOC further improved drug classification accuracy, demonstrating the potential for advancing pharmacological evaluation.
Source: openalex_inverted_index · Quality: baseline

Research context

OpenAlex topics: Neuroscience and Neural Engineering · Advanced Sensor and Energy Harvesting Materials · 3D Printing in Biomedical Research

SciVX discovery tags are terminology-based. OpenAlex topics are source-provided classifications.

Affiliations

School of Mechanical Engineering

Qilu University of Technology (Shandong Academy of Sciences)

Shandong Institute of Mechanical Design and Research

Department of Cardiac Surgery

Qilu Hospital of Shandong University

Children’s Hospital Affiliated to Shandong University

Division of Clinical Medicine, School of Medicine & Population Health

University of Sheffield, Medical School

State Key Laboratory of Transducer Technology, Aerospace Information Research Institute

Chinese Academy of Sciences

Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering

University of Toronto

Funding

National Natural Science Foundation of China · Natural Science Foundation of Shandong Province · Key R & D Program of Shandong Province (Major innovation project) · Science, Education and Industry Integration Innovation Pilot Project from Qilu University of Technology (Shandong Academy of Sciences) · Research Leader Studio in Colleges and Universities of Jinan · Talent research project of the pilot project of science, education and industry integration · Innovation Team of Organ-on-a-Chip Manufacturing Key Technologies · Qilu University of Technology (Shandong Academy of Sciences) Youth Outstanding Talent Program

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