Directed fusion of cardiac spheroids into larger heterocellular microtissues enables investigation of cardiac action potential propagation via cardiac fibroblasts.

ABSTRACT: Multicellular spheroids generated through cellular self-assembly provide cytoarchitectural complexities of native tissue including three-dimensionality, extensive cell-cell contacts, and appropriate cell-extracellular matrix interactions. They are increasingly suggested as building blocks for larger engineered tissues to achieve shapes, organization, heterogeneity, and other biomimetic complexities. Application of these tissue culture platforms is of particular importance in cardiac research as the myocardium is comprised of distinct but intermingled cell types. Here, we generated scaffold-free 3D cardiac microtissue spheroids comprised of cardiac myocytes (CMs) and/or cardiac fibroblasts (CFs) and used them as building blocks to form larger microtissues with different spatial distribution

SUBMITTER: Kim TY 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5929561 | biostudies-literature | 2018

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature