Young developmental age cardiac extracellular matrix promotes the expansion of neonatal cardiomyocytes in vitro

• Published in: Acta biomaterialia Vol. 10; no. 1; pp. 194 - 204
• Main Authors: Williams, C., Quinn, K.P., Georgakoudi, I., Black, L.D.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England Elsevier Ltd 01.01.2014
• Subjects: Animals; Animals, Newborn; Attachment; Biomedical materials; Cardiac tissue engineering; Cardiomyocyte; Cell Adhesion; Cell Proliferation; Design engineering; Electrochemical machining; Extracellular matrix; Extracellular Matrix - metabolism; Heart - growth & development; Heart Ventricles - cytology; In vitro testing; Markers; Myocardium - cytology; Myocytes, Cardiac - cytology; Proliferation; Rats; Rats, Sprague-Dawley; Reproducibility of Results; Second Harmonic Generation imaging; Strategy; Tissue engineering; Extracellular matrix; Proliferation; Second Harmonic Generation imaging; Cardiomyocyte; Cardiac tissue engineering
• ISSN: 1742-7061; 1878-7568
• DOI: 10.1016/j.actbio.2013.08.037

A major limitation to cardiac tissue engineering and regenerative medicine strategies is the lack of proliferation of postnatal cardiomyocytes. The extracellular matrix (ECM) is altered during heart development, and studies suggest that it plays an important role in regulating myocyte proliferation. Here, the effects of fetal, neonatal and adult cardiac ECM on the expansion of neonatal rat ventricular cells in vitro are studied. At 24h, overall cell attachment was lowest on fetal ECM; however, ∼80% of the cells were cardiomyocytes, while many non-myocytes attached to older ECM and poly-l-lysine controls. After 5days, the cardiomyocyte population remained highest on fetal ECM, with a 4-fold increase in number. Significantly more cardiomyocytes stained positively for the mitotic marker phospho-histone H3 on fetal ECM compared with other substrates at 5days, suggesting that proliferation may be a major mechanism of cardiomyocyte expansion on young ECM. Further study of the beneficial properties of early developmental aged cardiac ECM could advance the design of novel biomaterials aimed at promoting cardiac regeneration.