Establishing correlation of axial and vertical force of cardiac artificial tissue using a novel micromachined sensor

Cardiomyocytes iPSC (iPSC-CMs) have great potential for cell therapy, drug assessment, and for understanding the pathophysiology and genetic underpinnings of cardiac diseases. Contraction forces are one of the most important characteristics of cardiac function and are predictors of healthy and diseased states. Cantilever techniques, such as atomic force microscopy, measure the vertical force of a single cell, while systems designed to more closely resemble the physical heart function, such as cardiac tissue on posts, measure the axial force. One important question is how do these two force measurements correlate? By establishing a correlation of the axial and vertical force we will be one step closer in being able to use single cell iPSC instead of more elaborate human engineered tissue or animal heart tissue as models. A novel micromachined sensor for measuring force contractions of artificial tissue has been developed. Using this novel sensor a correlation between axial force and vertical force is experimentally established. This finding supports the use of vertical measurements as an alternative to tissue measurements.