Scientists create a living 3D 'heart-on-a-chip' to study and stop deadly heart disease

3D heart on a chip technology: A tiny, lab-grown piece of beating heart tissue may soon help scientists answer a question that has long been difficult: how will a real human heart respond to a drug or disease without putting a patient at risk?

What Is a 3D Heart-on-a-Chip and Why It Matters

Researchers from multiple Canadian institutions have developed a three-dimensional “heart-on-a-chip” designed to do just that, as per a report. The engineered tissue beats on its own, mobilizes calcium to trigger muscle contractions, and reacts predictably to well-known medications.

How This Beating Lab-Grown Heart Tissue Works

What makes this version different is its built-in dual-sensing system. For the first time, scientists can track both large-scale heart muscle contractions and tiny, cellular-level activity in real time, as per a ScienceAlert report. Earlier versions, including the team’s own 2024 model, did not offer this high-resolution view inside the tissue.


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Why Cardiomyocyte Function Is Critical in Heart Disease

That level of detail matters because many cardiovascular diseases begin at the level of cardiomyocytes, the individual cells responsible for heart contractions. When those cells malfunction, the entire heart can suffer. Being able to measure how these cells generate force is key to understanding conditions that can lead to heart failure.

How Researchers Built the Silicon-Based Heart-on-a-Chip

To build the device, researchers harvested cardiac muscle and connective tissue cells from rats. The cells were placed into a nutrient-rich, gel-like matrix that supports growth and then seeded onto flexible silicon-based chips.

The setup includes two types of sensors. The engineered heart tissue is suspended between elastic pillars that bend slightly with each beat. The degree of bending reveals the overall contractile strength of the tissue. At the same time, tiny hydrogel-based microsensors, droplets about 50 micrometers in size, sit within the tissue itself, deforming in response to local mechanical stress. This allows scientists to see what’s happening at the cellular level.

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Testing Norepinephrine and Blebbistatin on Engineered Heart Tissue

To test whether the chip could reliably predict drug responses, the team exposed it to two familiar compounds. Norepinephrine, used in medical settings to increase heart activity and maintain blood pressure, boosted contractions as expected. Blebbistatin, which inhibits muscle activity, reduced them. The tissue responded exactly as anticipated.

How Heart-on-a-Chip Technology Supports Precision Health

First author Ali Mousavi of the University of Montreal said, "The ability to observe the tissue's response to different compounds in real time represents a major advantage for preclinical development and translational research," as quoted by ScienceAlert.

Next, the researchers aim to build similar heart tissues using cells from patients with conditions such as dilated cardiomyopathy and arrhythmias. In the long term, this approach could allow doctors to test treatments on a patient’s own cells before prescribing medication.

Senior author Houman Savoji said, "This breakthrough brings us even closer to true precision health, by giving us the ability to identify the most effective medication for each person before treatment is even administered," as quoted by ScienceAlert.

FAQs

What is a heart-on-a-chip?

It’s a three-dimensional lab-grown heart tissue that beats on its own and is used to study drug and disease responses.



Could this technology help patients directly?

In the future, it may help doctors test medications on a patient’s own cells before prescribing treatment.