Highly reproducible tissue positioning with tapered pillar design in engineered heart tissue platforms
M. Dostanic (Leiden University Medical Center, TU Delft - Microelectronics)
Laura Windt (Leiden University Medical Center)
M. Wiendels (Leiden University Medical Center)
Berend van Meer (Leiden University Medical Center)
Christine Mummery (University of Twente, Leiden University Medical Center)
Pasqualina M Sarro (TU Delft - Electronic Components, Technology and Materials)
Massimo Mastrangeli (TU Delft - Electronic Components, Technology and Materials)
More Info
expand_more
Other than for strictly personal use, it is not permitted to download, forward or distribute the text or part of it, without the consent of the author(s) and/or copyright holder(s), unless the work is under an open content license such as Creative Commons.
Abstract
We present a novel design of elastic micropillars for tissue self-assembly in engineered heart tissue (EHT) platforms. The innovative tapered profile confines reproducibly the tissue position along the main micropillar axis, increasing the accuracy of tissue contraction force measurement. Polydimethylsiloxane-based pillars were designed and fabricated by wafer-level molding in an hourglass shape, with symmetric tapering producing a restriction for tissue movement in the middle of the pillars’ length. Confinement efficacy of the new geometry was validated by comparing the tissue performance in straight versus tapered (75° or 80° tapering angle) micropillars. While in all three cases compact tissues formed successfully, for both tapered designs the functionality assays evidenced yield increase from 15% to 100%, higher spatial tissue confinement, and correspondingly higher accuracy and smaller dispersion in measurements of tissue contraction force.