Issue 8, 2017

Anisotropic microfibrous scaffolds enhance the organization and function of cardiomyocytes derived from induced pluripotent stem cells

Abstract

Engineering of myocardial tissue constructs is a promising approach for treatment of coronary heart disease. To engineer myocardial tissues that better mimic the highly ordered physiological arrangement and function of native cardiomyocytes, we generated electrospun microfibrous polycaprolactone scaffolds with either randomly oriented (14 μm fiber diameter) or parallel-aligned (7 μm fiber diameter) microfiber arrangement and co-seeded the scaffolds with human induced pluripotent stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes (iCMs) and endothelial cells (iECs) for up to 12 days after iCM seeding. Here we demonstrated that aligned microfibrous scaffolds induced iCM alignment along the direction of the aligned microfibers after 2 days of iCM seeding, as well as promoted greater iCM maturation by increasing the sarcomeric length and gene expression of myosin heavy chain adult isoform (MYH7), in comparison to randomly oriented scaffolds. Furthermore, the benefit of scaffold anisotropy was evident in the significantly higher maximum contraction velocity of iCMs on the aligned scaffolds, compared to randomly oriented scaffolds, at 12 days of culture. Co-seeding of iCMs with iECs led to reduced contractility, compared to when iCMs were seeded alone. These findings demonstrate a dominant role of scaffold anisotropy in engineering cardiovascular tissues that maintain iCM organization and contractile function.

Graphical abstract: Anisotropic microfibrous scaffolds enhance the organization and function of cardiomyocytes derived from induced pluripotent stem cells

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
11 Apr 2017
Accepted
07 Jul 2017
First published
17 Jul 2017

Biomater. Sci., 2017,5, 1567-1578

Anisotropic microfibrous scaffolds enhance the organization and function of cardiomyocytes derived from induced pluripotent stem cells

M. Wanjare, L. Hou, K. H. Nakayama, J. J. Kim, N. P. Mezak, O. J. Abilez, E. Tzatzalos, J. C. Wu and N. F. Huang, Biomater. Sci., 2017, 5, 1567 DOI: 10.1039/C7BM00323D

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