Oriented and vectorial patterning of cardiac myocyte using a microfluidic dielectrophoresis chip - towards engineered cardiac tissue with controlled macroscopic anisotropy

Recently, the ability to create engineered heart tissues with a preferential cell orientation has gained much interest. Here, we present a novel method to construct a cardiac myocyte tissue-like structure using a combination of dielectrophoresis and electro-orientation via a microfluidic chip. Using the interdigitated-castellated microelectrodes, the induction of a mutually attractive dielectrophoretic force between cardiac myocytes can lead the cells moving close to each other and forming a tissue-like structure with orientation along the AC electric field between the electrode gaps. Both experimental results and theoretical analysis have indicated that a large orientation torque and force can be achieved by choosing an optimal frequency and decreasing the conductivity of the medium to a low level, where the orientation torque weakly depends on the frequency. In this paper, electromechanical experiments were performed to demonstrate the structural and functional anisotropy of the electro-oriented structure.