On-chip monitoring of skeletal myoblast transplantation for the treatment of hypoxia-induced myocardial injury

Analyst. 2014 Sep 21;139(18):4482-90. doi: 10.1039/c4an00697f.

Abstract

A comprehensive elucidation of the unexpected adverse events that occur in skeletal myoblast transplantation is fundamental for the optimization of myocardial therapeutic effects. However, a well-defined method to study the interactions between skeletal myoblasts and cardiomyocytes during the healing process is out of reach. Here, we describe a microfluidic method for monitoring the interactions between skeletal myoblasts and hypoxia-injured cardiomyocytes in a spatiotemporally-controlled manner, mimicking the in vivo cell transplantation process. A myocardial hypoxia environment was created using an oxygen consumption blocking reagent, carbonyl cyanide 4-(trifluoromethoxy)phenylhydrazone. Meanwhile, the interactions between the skeletal L6 myoblasts and hypoxia-injured myocardium H9c2 cells were investigated, and the effects of a L6 conditional medium on H9c2 cells were comparatively analyzed by quantitatively measuring the morphological and pathophysiological dynamics of H9c2 cells. The results showed that skeletal myoblasts could repair hypoxia-injured H9c2 cells mainly through direct cell-to-cell interactions. This simple on-chip assay for investigating myocardial repair processes may provide avenues for the in vitro screening of drug-induced cardiotoxicity.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Cell Communication
  • Cell Line
  • Equipment Design
  • Hypoxia / complications*
  • Microfluidic Analytical Techniques / instrumentation*
  • Myoblasts, Skeletal / cytology
  • Myoblasts, Skeletal / transplantation*
  • Myocardial Ischemia / etiology*
  • Myocardial Ischemia / pathology
  • Myocardial Ischemia / therapy*
  • Myocardium
  • Myocytes, Cardiac / cytology
  • Myocytes, Cardiac / pathology*
  • Rats