Electro-Mechanical Measurement of Cardiomyocytes for Drug Toxicity Screening

This work demonstrates a dual simultaneous measurement platform that can be used for drug induced cardiac toxicity screening. The platform consists of a cantilever with strain sensor and microelectrodes patterned on them that can measure contraction force and field potential of the cultured cardiomyocytes at the same time. The fabricated device was first characterized for its performance by measuring the base impedance of the microelectrodes and sensitivity of the strain sensor. Thereafter, cardiomyocytes were cultured on the cantilever and simultaneous electro-mechanical measurements were performed. Finally, the platform was tested for its response to drug toxicity by adding Blebbistatin which is a myosin inhibitor. The proposed cantilever-based dual measurement platform has great potential to be used for a detailed assessment of cardiotoxicity.