Liu Xia.
Chemotherapy can be toxic to heart cells, and to protect the hearts of cancer patients, scientists at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in the United States have created a three-dimensional "heart-on-a-chip" to evaluate the safety of the drug. This "heart on a chip" made from stem cells pinpoints the effect of the drug on human heart cells. The study** was published in the latest issue of Lab-on-a-Chip.
By inducing pluripotent stem cells, the research team created two types of heart cells: cardiomyocytes and vascular cells, and introduced them into a specialized chip. These 3D chips have intersecting channels that allow cells to separate but interact with each other. The chip can also move and introduce liquids.
The chip allows them to stretch cells back and forth to simulate a heartbeat, and can introduce fluid to mimic the flow of blood through the heart, according to Arun Sharma, the head of the latest study. These "mature" cells are functionally closer to adult heart cells, providing a better testing platform for drug toxicity studies.
To demonstrate the maturity of this "heart-on-a-chip" as a drug testing platform, the research team placed it on chemotherapy with VEGFR PDGFR inhibitors**. The drug is known to have adverse effects on heart muscle and vascular cells. The results showed damage to both cells on the "heart-on-a-chip".
According to the research team, if this "heart on a chip" continues to perform well in follow-up studies, the technology could significantly reduce the cost of drug development and accelerate the utilization of new **.
The research team can also use these "heart-on-a-chip" to create patient-specific microarrays that show how the patient's heart responds to the heart and provide them with personalization. Another possibility is to integrate such chips with other similar chips, eventually creating a "chip patient" model, which is one of the long-term visions of precision medicine.