Autonomous bioactuator driven by chicken cardiomyocytes

This paper describes a chick embryo cardiomyocyte actuator for investigation of cardiomyocyte contractile properties as alternatives of culture system with rodent cardiomyocytes. Chick embryo cardiomyocytes are more accessible than rat or mouse cardiomyocytes in terms of cost and ethics. We cultured chick embryo cardiomyocytes on parylene sheets and observed that the parylene sheets autonomously flapped with the contractile force of cardiomyocytes. Furthermore, the flap frequency increased in response to the addition of isoproterenol, which promotes contraction of cardiac muscles. This technique would reduce the cost of experiments, and thus be expected to promote the study of contractile properties of cardiomyocytes.