Miniaturized Human Heart On A Chip Offers Promise For Safer Cancer Treatments

In a promising development for medical research, a new "heart-on-a-chip" model has been unveiled by Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles. This miniature, laboratory-grown heart holds the potential to revolutionize cancer treatment safety.

The primary purpose of the chip is to assess the cardiac risks associated with cancer therapies. Certain treatments, while effectively targeting cancer cells, can inadvertently harm the heart. This heart-on-a-chip model offers a controlled and ethical environment to test these drugs, ensuring patient well-being is prioritized.

Several significant advancements distinguish this model from its predecessors. Firstly, the team employed mature heart cells derived from human-induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs). This enhanced cell maturity translates to a more accurate representation of human heart function. Furthermore, the chip boasts an impressive beating rate of approximately 60 beats per minute, mirroring the natural human rhythm.

The authors of the study say, "We develop a multi-lineage, fully integrated cardiovascular organ chip that can enhance hiPSC-EC and hiPSC-CM functional and genetic maturity, model endothelial barrier permeability, and demonstrate long-term functional stability. This microfluidic organ chip harbors hiPSC-CMs and hiPSC-ECs on separate channels that can be subjected to active fluid flow and rhythmic biomechanical stretch. We demonstrate the utility of this cardiovascular organ chip as a predictive platform for evaluating multi-lineage VPTKI toxicity. This study may lead to the development of new modalities for the evaluation and prevention of cancer therapy-induced cardiotoxicity."

"Ultimately, multi-lineage, hiPSC-based systems such as the heart chip presented here may reduce reliance on animal models that are traditionally used for preclinical drug cardiotoxicity testing," the researchers write in their published paper.

"The heart-chip platform we have developed enables the screening of potentially cardiotoxic chemotherapeutic agents on multiple cardiovascular cell types in a physiologically relevant model," write the researchers.