Towards engineering heart tissues from bioprinted cardiac spheroids.
Currentin vivoandin vitromodels fail to accurately recapitulate the human heart microenvironment for biomedical applications. This study explores the use of cardiac spheroids (CSs) to biofabricate advancedin vitromodels of the human heart. CSs were created from human cardiac myocytes, fibroblasts and endothelial cells (ECs), mixed within optimal alginate/gelatin hydrogels and then bioprinted on a microelectrode plate for drug testing. Bioprinted CSs maintained their structure and viability for at least 30 d after printing. Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) promoted EC branching from CSs within hydrogels. Alginate/gelatin-based hydrogels enabled spheroids fusion, which was further facilitated by addition of VEGF. Bioprinted CSs contracted spontaneously and under stimulation, allowing to record contractile and electrical signals on the microelectrode plates for industrial applications. Taken together, our findings indicate that bioprinted CSs can be used to biofabricate human heart tissues for long termin vitrotesting. This has the potential to be used to study biochemical, physiological and pharmacological features of human heart tissue.
['Polonchuk|Liudmila|L|', 'Surija|Lydia|L|', 'Lee|Min Ho|MH|', 'Sharma|Poonam|P|', 'Liu Chung Ming|Clara|C|', 'Richter|Florian|F|', 'Ben-Sefer|Eitan|E|', 'Rad|Maryam Alsadat|MA|', 'Mahmodi Sheikh Sarmast|Hadi|H|', 'Shamery|Wafa Al|WA|', 'Tran|Hien A|HA|', 'Vettori|Laura|L|', 'Haeusermann|Fabian|F|', 'Filipe|Elysse C|EC|', 'Rnjak-Kovacina|Jelena|J|', 'Cox|Thomas|T|', 'Tipper|Joanne|J|', 'Kabakova|Irina|I|0000-0002-6831-9478', 'Gentile|Carmine|C|0000-0002-3689-4275']
D062028:Bioprinting D042783:Endothelial Cells D006801:Humans D020100:Hydrogels D066330:Printing, Three-Dimensional D023822:Tissue Engineering D054457:Tissue Scaffolds D042461:Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor A
bioprinting spheroids vascularization VEGF fusion bioinks cardiac physiology