Figure 3.

(A) Illustrations of the heart at the level of organ (left) and tissue and cell/matrix interaction (center), followed by scanning electron micrographs of engineered scaffolds (right). The ECMs of various tissues have different composition and spatial organization of molecules to maintain specific tissue morphologies. The ECM of muscle tissues, such as the heart, forces the heart cells (cardiomyocytes) to couple mechanically to each other and to form elongated and aligned cell bundles that create an anisotropic syncytium. Reprinted with permission from Macmillan Publishers Ltd: Nature Nanotechnology, copyright 2011.36 (B) Nanogrooved surfaces (SEM image) are suitable matrices for cardiac tissue engineering because they force cardiomyocytes to align.41