An evaluation of different coatings for TiN microelectrode chambers used for neonatal cardiomyocytes

Neonatal myocytes are a widely used model for modern in-vitro pharmacological screening and tissue engineering of cardiac tissue. The recording of neonatal myocyte electrophysiology in real time has still not been ideally optimised, however. The aim of this study was to evaluate the impact of using different substrates in culture (MEA) chambers on the surviving and functional electrophysiological activity of the myocytes after the first five days after isolation. Neonatal cardiomyocytes were isolated from two day-old neonatal rats and plated on 12×12 ITO microelectrode chambers (Multi-Channel Systems) and cultured for five days. Four coating methods were used. The PDL + fibronectin treatment displayed the highest cardiomyocyte adhesion to the electrodes (20% of total cells in chamber after seeding) and developed contractible cells during the five days of pre-cultivation with a measurable electrical response. Nevertheless, the cells adhered to all surface-treated MEA chambers, creating typical cell morphology, but with different success rates.