Kujala Kirsi, Ahola Antti, Pekkanen-Mattila Mari, Ikonen Liisa, Kerkelä Erja, Hyttinen Jari, Aalto-Setälä Katriina
Institute of Biomedical Technology, University of Tampere, FIN-33014 University of Tampere, Tampere, Finland; ; BioMediTech, Tampere, Finland;
Int J Biomed Sci. 2012 Jun;8(2):109-20.
Electrical field stimulation has been shown to improve cardiac cell alignment and functional properties. In this study, neonatal rat cardiomyocytes were exposed to both long-term and short-term stimulation with the goal of investigating whether it is possible to achieve cell orientation and the maturation of cardiomyocytes with a novel, microelectrode array (MEA)-compatible electrical stimulation platform. Cells were viable after electrical stimulation, but no orientation or other morphological changes were observed. However, the electrode wires in MEA dishes affected the cell orientation. Cell contractions synchronized with pacing, but settled back to their original frequency in the absence of stimulation. The expression of genes encoding a gap junction protein connexin-43 (Cx-43), and contractile cardiac protein beta myosin heavy chain 7, was stronger in stimulated cells than in controls (p<0.05). In summary, the surface topography influenced to cardiomyocyte orientation, suggesting that the micro architecture of the biomaterials should be carefully designed for cell applications. However, as electrical stimulation and its duration affected gene expression of some main cardiac proteins, the stimulation system may prove useful to enhance the cardiac differentiation of stem cells.
电场刺激已被证明可改善心肌细胞排列和功能特性。在本研究中，将新生大鼠心肌细胞暴露于长期和短期刺激下，目的是研究使用新型微电极阵列（MEA）兼容的电刺激平台是否有可能实现心肌细胞的定向排列和成熟。电刺激后细胞仍存活，但未观察到定向排列或其他形态变化。然而，MEA培养皿中的电极丝影响了细胞定向排列。细胞收缩与起搏同步，但在无刺激时恢复到其原始频率。编码间隙连接蛋白连接蛋白43（Cx-43）和收缩性心脏蛋白β肌球蛋白重链7的基因在受刺激细胞中的表达比对照组更强（p<0.05）。总之，表面形貌影响心肌细胞定向排列，这表明生物材料的微观结构应针对细胞应用进行精心设计。然而，由于电刺激及其持续时间影响了一些主要心脏蛋白的基因表达，该刺激系统可能被证明有助于增强干细胞的心脏分化。
