Abstract
Human embryonic stem cells (hESC) and hESC-derived cardiomyocytes (hESC-CM) hold great promise for the treatment of cardiovascular diseases. However the mechanobiological properties of hESC and hESC-CM remains elusive. In this paper, we examined the dynamic and static micromechanical properties of hESC and hESC-CM, by manipulating via optical tweezers at the single-cell level. Theoretical approaches were developed to model the dynamic and static mechanical responses of cells during optical stretching. Our experiments showed that the mechanical stiffness of differentiated hESC-CM increased after cardiac differentiation. Such stiffening could associate with increasingly organized myofibrillar assembly that underlines the functional characteristics of hESC-CM. In summary, our findings lay the ground work for using hESC-CMs as models to study mechanical and contractile defects in heart diseases.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 123-128 |
| Number of pages | 6 |
| Journal | Journal of Biomechanics |
| Volume | 45 |
| Issue number | 1 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 3 Jan 2012 |
| Externally published | Yes |
Keywords
- Biomechanics
- Cardiac differentiation
- Cell manipulation
- Human embryonic stem cell
- Optical tweezers
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Biophysics
- Orthopedics and Sports Medicine
- Biomedical Engineering
- Rehabilitation
