Abstract
In recent years, tissue engineering has been progressing, and myocardial sheets that consist of cultured myocytes are designed to regenerative medicine. Here we propose myocardial cell net, which is expected to be more flexible and richer in blood flow than dense sheet. To make myocardial cell net, we cultured neonatal rat cardiac myocytes on micro-lithographically fabricated dishes. Myocardial cells were obtained from neonatal rat hearts and cultured on the dish which have micro-lithographed squared pattern. Cell growth was observed with a time laps system. Some cardiomyocytes migrated between squares and made cell-to-cell connection, others stayed in squares, divided in two and gradurally made connection at the corners. Finally cardiomyocytes formed cell net. Myocardial cells were regularly directed and synchronous contraction was observed. Rhodamine phalloidin staining revealed that actin fibers were oriented. We succeeded in production of myocardial cell net using micropattern-attached culture dish. It may be a prospective candidate for application in regenerative medicine.
