Regensburg 2019 – scientific programme

Parts | Days | Selection | Search | Updates | Downloads | Help

BP: Fachverband Biologische Physik

BP 30: Cell mechanics III

BP 30.3: Talk

Thursday, April 4, 2019, 16:45–17:00, H4

Microtissues as an In-vitro platform for Investigating Muscle Mechanics — •Delf Kah, Ingo Thievessen, Marina Spörrer, Wolfgang Goldmann, and Ben Fabry — Department of Physics, Biophysics Group, Friedrich-Alexander-University Erlangen-Nuremberg, D-91052, Erlangen, Germany

In-vitro engineered muscle tissue grafts are of growing interest for different applications including regenerative therapy, replacement of infarcted cardiac sites, or as a drug testing platform. Critical for the successful development of suitable models for engineered muscle grafts is the maturation into an in-vivo-like, highly aligned, and contractile tissue. To achieve this, we established a stretchable and electrically paceable system consisting of an array of 4x2x2 mm microwells with two elastic pillars that serve as force sensors. Our system provides a universal platform for a variety of cell-mechanical investigations of different types of muscle tissue. Cardiomyocytes mixed with collagen, for example, form aligned tissues that show distinct mechanical response depending on the stiffness of the PDMS pillars. This indicates a force feedback in response to the mechanical regime similar to the classic Frank-Starling mechanism. Tissues from skeletal muscle cells, on the other hand, show increased static contractility when exposed to mechanical stress during early tissue development.