Figure 1.

Controlling the tissue architecture of engineered myocardium using ECM guidance cues. (a) The architecture of engineered cardiac tissues was controlled by micro-contact printing the ECM protein fibronectin (FN) into the desired pattern. Three distinct ECM patterns were chosen for this study to assess the contribution of tissue architecture to the maturation of engineered myocardium in vitro. (b) In Vitro Iso: coverslips coated uniformly with FN (i), gave rise to monolayers of randomly oriented cardiomyocytes (ii). (c) In Vitro Lines: micro-contact printed 15 µm wide FN lines spaced 15 µm apart (i) produced linear arrays of highly aligned cardiac myocytes (ii). (d) In Vitro Aniso: micro-contact printed 15 µm wide FN lines spaced 2 µm apart (i) produced confluent anisotropic sheets of cardiac myocytes (ii). For panels bi, ci, di, scale bars = 10 µm. For panels bii, cii, dii, scale bars = 100 µm