Quantifying Early Electromechanical Integration of Cardiomyocytes Using a Minimalist PCL Nanofiber Platform.

ABSTRACT: A critical obstacle in cardiac cell therapy is the unpredictable and poorly understood initial electrophysiological integration of grafted cardiomyocytes into the host tissue, a process that dictates therapeutic success and arrhythmic risk. Current models fail to capture the earliest stages of functional coupling formation. Here, we employed a tailored bioengineering platform, where single cardiomyocytes were stabilized on minimalist electrospun polycaprolactone (PCL) nanofibers, to model the "graft-host" interface and study the dynamics of excitation wave transmission in real-time. Using high-speed optical mapping enhanced by a custom SUPPORT neural network, we achieved the first quantitative insights into the efficiency of nascent intercellular contacts. We determined that within the fir

SUBMITTER: Dzhabrailov V 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12787915 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature