부산대학교 도서관

Heart disease has always been the leading cause of death globally. In the past decade, in vitro drug screening attracts a lot of attention, where mature cardiomyocytes seem to be able to further predict human drug response. Remarkable progress has been made on maturation of cardiomyocytes, such as the use of conductive materials, cell alignment, etc. This paper features polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) thin film that is embedded with silver nanowires (AgNW) and nanogrooves of width 800 nm, thereby making the surface conductive, flexible as well as stretchable. The utilization of embedded AgNW provides better cell adhesion and avoids detachment of cardiomyocytes while beating. In addition, it offers a conductive surface which significantly increases cell-to-cell connection. Moreover, the embedded structure efficiently decreases toxicity of AgNW. Besides, nanogrooves are applied to guide the growth of cardiomyocytes. This paper shows a promising method to improve cell adhesion; meanwhile, it achieves enhancement of connexin 43 expression.