The ability to measure microtissue contraction in vitro can provide important information when modeling cardiac, cardiovascular, respiratory, digestive, dermal, and skeletal tissues. However, measuring tissue contraction in vitro often requires the use of high number of cells per tissue construct along with time-consuming microscopy and image analysis. Here, we present an inexpensive, versatile, high-throughput platform to measure microtissue contraction in a 96-well plate configuration using one-step batch imaging. More specifically, optical fiber microprobes are embedded in microtissues, and contraction is measured as a function of the deflection of optical signals emitted from the end of the fibers. Signals can be measured from all the filled wells on the plate simultaneously using a digital camera. An algorithm uses pixel-based image analysis and computer vision techniques for the accurate multiwell quantification of positional changes in the optical microprobes caused by the contraction of the microtissues. Microtissue constructs containing 20,000-100,000 human ventricular cardiac fibroblasts (NHCF-V) in 6 mg/mL collagen type I showed contractile displacements ranging from 20-200 μm. This highly sensitive and versatile platform can be used for the high-throughput screening of microtissues in disease modeling, drug screening for therapeutics, physiology research, and safety pharmacology.
Keywords: 3D culture; computer vision.; high throughput; tissue contraction; tissue function.