Microfluidic Systems for Cardiac Cell Culture—Characterization

The microfluidic systems are designed especially for many biological applications. An Organ-on-a-chip system, used to mimic organ functions, is one type of such microsystems. Various organs, e.g., liver, skin, lung, or breast are investigated in microscale. The microsystems designed for heart cell culture and analysis (called Heart-on-a-chip) are also fabricated. In this chapter, a characterization of the microfluidic systems for cardiac cell culture is described. Interest in this research area stems from the fact that heart diseases are the most common cause of death around the world. Therefore, research issues concerning heart diseases are presented at the beginning of this chapter. Two approaches of investigating cardiac cells in microscale are shown: the creation of a beating heart culture model, which mimics heart tissue and the creation of a whole vascular system, which mimics blood flow in vessels. Specific properties, which have to be provided in Heart-on-a-chip systems, are also presented. Features such as: perfusion conditions, electrical field, stretching, hydrogels, and nanofibres are used to mimic a native myocardium. Additionally, heart cell culture in the microsystems is often used to simulate heart diseases and investigate heart regeneration using stem cells (SCs).