Development of a novel microfluidic platform to generate in vitro multiple 3D human cardiac micro-tissues for patient specific drug screeening and disease modeling

A novel microfluidic platform was developed to generate in vitro 3D cardiac micro-tissues from iPSC-d-CMs. The platform allow the culture of multiple constructs that can be indipendently chemically and mechanically stimulated, in a high-throughput approach. The effects of the mechanical stimulation on the tissues were studied and the cardiotoxicity of different drugs was tested. Both healthy and diseased cell lines (Becker muscular dystrophy) were used to perform in vitro disease modeling and patient-specific drug screening.

E' stata sviluppata una nuova piattaforma microfluidica per generare micro-tessuti cardiaci 3D in vitro derivati da iPSC-d-CMs. La piattaforma permette la coltura di costrutti multipli, stimolabili chimicamente e meccanicamente in modo indipendente, in un'ottica high-throughput. Sono stati studiati gli effetti della stimolazione meccanica sui tessuti ed è stata valutata la cardiotossicità di diversi farmaci. Sono state considerate linee cellulari da soggetti sani e da pazienti (distrofia muscolare di Becker) per creare modelli di malattia in vitro e terapia farmacologica paziente-specifica.