Electrically stimulable indium tin oxide plate for long-term in vitro cardiomyocyte culture

Sung-Hwan Moon; Young-Woo Cho; Hye-Eun Shim; Jae-Hak Choi; Chan-Hee Jung; In-Tae Hwang; Sun-Woong Kang

doi:10.1186/s40824-020-00189-0

Electrically stimulable indium tin oxide plate for long-term in vitro cardiomyocyte culture

Biomater Res. 2020 May 27:24:10. doi: 10.1186/s40824-020-00189-0. eCollection 2020.

Authors

Sung-Hwan Moon¹, Young-Woo Cho², Hye-Eun Shim³, Jae-Hak Choi⁴, Chan-Hee Jung⁵, In-Tae Hwang⁵, Sun-Woong Kang^{3

6}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Medical Science, School of Medicine, Konkuk University, Seoul, South Korea.
² Drug Safety and Toxicity Evaluation Team, New Drug Development Center, Osong Medical Innovation Foundation, Cheongju-Si, Chungbuk South Korea.
³ Research Group for Biomimetic Advanced Technology, Korea Institute of Toxicology, Daejeon, South Korea.
⁴ Department of Polymer Science and Engineering, Chungnam National University, Daejeon, South Korea.
⁵ Research Division for Industry and Environment, Advanced Radiation Technology Institute, Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute, Jeonbuk, South Korea.
⁶ Department of Human and Environmental Toxicology, University of Science and Technology, Daejeon, South Korea.

Abstract

Background: We investigated whether electrical stimulation via indium tin oxide (ITO) could enhance the in vitro culture of neonatal rat ventricular myocytes (NRVMs), which are important in vitro models for studying the mechanisms underlying many aspects of cardiology.

Methods: Cardiomyocytes were obtained from 1-day-old neonatal rat heart ventricles. To evaluate function of NRVMs cultured on ITO with electrical stimulation, the cell viability, change of cell morphology, immunochemistry using cardiac-specific antibodies, and gene expression were tested.

Results: Defined sarcomeric structure, cell enlargement, and increased distribution of NRVMs appeared in the presence of electrical stimulation. These characteristics were absent in NRVMs cultured under standard culture conditions. In addition, the expression levels of cardiomyocyte-specific and ion channel markers were higher in NRVMs seeded on ITO-coated dishes than in the control group at 14 days after seeding. ITO-coated dishes could effectively provide electrical cues to support the in vitro culture of NRVMs.

Conclusions: These results provide supporting evidence that electrical stimulation via ITO can be effectively used to maintain culture and enhance function of cardiomyocytes in vitro.

Keywords: Electrical stimulation; Indium tin oxide; Neonatal rat ventricular myocytes; Stem cells.