Microengineered in vitro model of cardiac fibrosis through modulating myofibroblast mechanotransduction

Cardiac fibrosis greatly impairs normal heart function post infarction and there is no effective anti-fibrotic drug developed at present. The current therapies for cardiac infarction mainly take effect by eliminating occlusion in coronary artery by thrombolysis drugs, vascular stent grafting or heart bypass operation, which are capable to provide sufficient blood flow for intact myocardium yet showed subtle efficacy in ameliorating fibrosis condition. The advances of in vitro cell/tissue models open new avenues for drug assessment due to the low cost, good controllability and availability as well as the convenience for operation as compared to the animal models. To our knowledge, no proper biomimetic in vitro cardiac fibrosis model has been reported yet. Here we engineered an in vitro cardiac fibrosis model using heart-derived fibroblasts, and the fibrogenesis was recapitulated by patterning the substrate rigidity which mimicked the mechanical heterogeneity of myocardium post-infarction. Various biomarkers for cardiac fibrosis were assayed to validate the biomimicry of the engineered platform. Subsequent addition of Rho-associated protein kinase (ROCK) pathway inhibitor reduced the ratio of myofibroblasts, indicating the feasibility of applying this platform in screening anti-fibrosis drugs.