Disease Biophysics Group, John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Science, Harvard University, Boston, MA 02134, USA.
Department of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA 15261, USA.
Science. 2022 Jul 8;377(6602):180-185. doi: 10.1126/science.abl6395. Epub 2022 Jul 7.
Helical alignments within the heart's musculature have been speculated to be important in achieving physiological pumping efficiencies. Testing this possibility is difficult, however, because it is challenging to reproduce the fine spatial features and complex structures of the heart's musculature using current techniques. Here we report focused rotary jet spinning (FRJS), an additive manufacturing approach that enables rapid fabrication of micro/nanofiber scaffolds with programmable alignments in three-dimensional geometries. Seeding these scaffolds with cardiomyocytes enabled the biofabrication of tissue-engineered ventricles, with helically aligned models displaying more uniform deformations, greater apical shortening, and increased ejection fractions compared with circumferential alignments. The ability of FRJS to control fiber arrangements in three dimensions offers a streamlined approach to fabricating tissues and organs, with this work demonstrating how helical architectures contribute to cardiac performance.
心脏肌肉中的螺旋排列结构被认为对实现生理泵送效率很重要。然而，要验证这种可能性是困难的，因为目前的技术很难复制心脏肌肉的精细空间特征和复杂结构。在这里，我们报告了聚焦旋转喷射纺丝（FRJS），这是一种增材制造方法，可快速制造具有可编程三维几何形状的微/纳米纤维支架。在这些支架上接种心肌细胞，使组织工程心室得以生物制造，与环形排列相比，螺旋排列的模型显示出更均匀的变形、更大的心尖缩短和更高的射血分数。FRJS 在三维空间中控制纤维排列的能力为制造组织和器官提供了一种简化的方法，这项工作展示了螺旋结构如何有助于心脏性能。
