No abstract

Rationale: One goal of cardiac tissue engineering is the generation of a living, human pump in vitro that could replace animal models and eventually serve as an in vivo therapeutic. Models that replicate the geometrically complex structure of the heart, harboring chambers and large vessels with soft biomaterials, can be achieved using 3-dimensional bioprinting. Yet, inclusion of contiguous, living muscle to support pump function has not been achieved. This is largely due to the challenge of attaining high densities of cardiomyocytes—a notoriously nonproliferative cell type. An alternative strategy is to print with human induced pluripotent stem cells, which can proliferate to high densities and fill tissue spaces, and subsequently differentiate them into cardiomyocytes in situ. Objective: To develop a bioink capable of promoting human induced pluripotent stem cell proliferation and cardiomyocyte differentiation to 3-dimensionally print electromechanically functional, chambered organoids composed of contiguous cardiac muscle. Methods and Results: We optimized a photo-crosslinkable formulation of native ECM (extracellular matrix) proteins and used this bioink to 3-dimensionally print human induced pluripotent stem cell–laden structures with 2 chambers and a vessel inlet and outlet. After human induced pluripotent stem cells proliferated to a sufficient density, we differentiated the cells within the structure and demonstrated function of the resultant human chambered muscle pump. Human chambered muscle pumps demonstrated macroscale beating and continuous action potential propagation with responsiveness to drugs and pacing. The connected chambers allowed for perfusion and enabled replication of pressure/volume relationships fundamental to the study of heart function and remodeling with health and disease. Conclusions: This advance represents a critical step toward generating macroscale tissues, akin to aggregate-based organoids, but with the critical advantage of harboring geometric structures essential to the pump function of cardiac muscle. Looking forward, human chambered organoids of this type might also serve as a test bed for cardiac medical devices and eventually lead to therapeutic tissue grafting.

The photoaging process of facial skin is investigated by use of multiphoton fluorescence and second-harmonic generation (SHG) microscopy. We obtain the autofluorescence (AF) and SHG images of the superficial dermis from the facial skin of three patients aged 20, 40, and 70 years. The results show that areas of AF increase with age, whereas areas of SHG decrease with age. The results are consistent with the histological findings in which collagen is progressively replaced by elastic fibers. The AF and SHG changes in photoaging are quantified by a SHG to autofluorescence aging index of dermis (SAAID). Our results suggest that SAAID can be a good indicator of the severity of photoaging.

We performed multiphoton fluorescence (MF) and second-harmonic generation (SHG) imaging on human basal cell carcinoma samples. In the dermis, basal cell carcinomas can be identified by masses of autofluorescent cells with relatively large nuclei and marked peripheral palisading. In the normal dermis, SHG from dermal collagen contributes largely to the multiphoton signal. However, within the cancer stroma, SHG signals diminish and are replaced by autofluorescent signals, indicating that normal collagen structures responsible for SHG have been altered. To better delineate the cancer cells and cancer stroma from the normal dermis, a quantitative MF to SHG index is developed. We demonstrate that this index can be used to differentiate cancer cells and adjacent cancer stroma from the normal dermis. Our work shows that MF and SHG imaging can be an alternative for Mohs' surgery in the real-time guidance of the secure removal of basal cell carcinoma.

Structural similarity of electrospun fibers (ESFs) to the native extracellular matrix provides great potential for the application of biofunctional ESFs in tissue engineering. This study aimed to synthesize biofunctionalized poly (Llactide-co-glycolide) (PLGA) ESFs for investigating the potential for cardiac tissue engineering application. We developed a simple but novel strategy to incorporate adhesive peptides in PLGA ESFs. Two adhesive peptides derived from laminin, YIGSR, and RGD, were covalently conjugated to poly-L-lysine, and then mingled with PLGA solution for electrospinning. Peptides were uniformly distributed on the surface and in the interior of ESFs. PLGA ESFs incorporated with YIGSR or RGD or adsorbed with laminin significantly enhanced the adhesion of cardiomyocytes isolated from neonatal rats. Furthermore, the cells were found to adhere better on ESFs compared with flat substrates after 7 days of culture. Immunofluorescent staining of F-actin, vinculin, a-actinin, and Ncadherin indicated that cardiomyocytes adhered and formed striated a-actinin better on the laminin-coated ESFs and the YIGSR-incorporated ESFs compared with the RGD-incorporated ESFs. The expression of a-myosin heavy chain and b-tubulin on the YIGSR-incorporated ESFs was significantly higher compared with the expression level on PLGA and RGD-incorporated samples. Furthermore, the contraction of cardiomyocytes was faster and lasted longer on the laminin-coated ESFs and YIGSR-incorporated ESFs. The results suggest that aligned YIGSRincorporated PLGA ESFs is a better candidate for the formation of cardiac patches. This study demonstrated the potential of using peptide-incorporated ESFs as designable-scaffold platform for tissue engineering.