Intrinsic Color Sensing System Allows for Real-Time Observable Functional Changes on Human Induced Pluripotent Stem Cell-Derived Cardiomyocytes

Abstract

Stem-cell based in vitro differentiation for disease modeling offers great value to explore the molecular and functional underpinnings driving many types of cardiomyopathy and congenital heart diseases. Nevertheless, one major caveat in the application of in vitro differentiation of human induced pluripotent stem cell (hiPSC)-derived cardiomyocytes (hiPSC-CMs) involves the immature phenotype of the CMs. Most of the existing methods need complex apparatus and require laborious procedures in order to monitor the cardiac differentiation/maturation process and often result in cell death. Here we developed an intrinsic color sensing system utilizing a microgroove structural color methacrylated gelatin film, which allows us to monitor the cardiac differentiation process of hiPSC-derived cardiac progenitor cells in real time. Subsequently this system can be employed as an assay system to live monitor induced functional changes on hiPSC-CMs stemming from drug treatment, the effects of which are simply revealed through color diversity. Our research shows that early intervention of cardiac differentiation through simple physical cues can enhance cardiac differentiation and maturation to some extent. Our system also simplifies the previous complex experimental processes for evaluating the physiological effects of successful differentiation and drug treatment and lays a solid foundation for future transformational applications.

Photonic Vitrimer Elastomer with Self‐Healing, High Toughness, Mechanochromism, and Excellent Durability based on Dynamic Covalent Bond

“…[ 15,16 ] Integrating self‐healing polymeric networks with photonic crystals could create photonic crystals with self‐healing capability, leading to potential applications in visualized human‐machine interface, [ 17 ] smart wearable interactive sensor, [ 3a ] and cell monitoring. [ 18 ] However, the existing self‐healable photonic crystals are based on hydrogels or supramolecular elastomers with weak hydrogen/coordination bonding, [ 17e,f ] which usually suffers from low ambient stability, weak mechanical properties, and poor creep‐resistance. The introduction of vitrimer polymer networks with relatively strong covalent bonds would render the self‐healable photonic crystals with high ambient stability, excellent mechanical properties, creep‐resistance, and durability.…”

Living Materials for Life Healthcare

“…Apart from genetically programmed single-cell bacteria, stem cell engineering is another important aspect in constructing functional living elements . The induced differentiation of stem cells under physical, chemical, and electrical stimulation is a versatile strategy for the regulation or enhancement of particular cellular functions.…”

“…Besides, a cardiomyocyte-actuated robot could serve as a moving indicator in a heart-on-a-chip setup to indicate the cells’ response to potassium ions by their motion velocity and thus could be used to model hyperkalemia disease . Apart from mature cardiomyocytes, a more complicated chip design was achieved for monitoring the cardiac differentiation process of human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) . With the help of a microgrooved structural color film, changes in the gene expression of the hiPSC-derived cardiac progenitors (hCPCs) were identified in real time.…”

Electroconductive and Anisotropic Structural Color Hydrogels for Visual Heart‐on‐a‐Chip Construction

“…[9][10][11][12][13][14] Among various designs of heart-on-a-chip, the one based on patterned structural color hydrogels has attracted interest in recent years. [15][16][17][18] Taking advantage of the features of these colorful hydrogels, the cardiomyocytes could be aligned and their beating would be reflected on the substrates bending or drawing, both of which could selfreport an obvious periodic color variation of the materials for the microphysiological visuality in the heart-on-a-chip. [19][20][21] Although with many progresses, the current construction of the patterned structural color materials-based heart-on-a-chip consists of several steps, including assembling, replicating, and chemical etching.…”