Living myofibroblast-silicon composites for probing electrical coupling in cardiac systems.

ABSTRACT: Traditional bioelectronics, primarily comprised of nonliving synthetic materials, lack cellular behaviors such as adaptability and motility. This shortcoming results in mechanically invasive devices and nonnatural signal transduction across cells and tissues. Moreover, resolving heterocellular electrical communication in vivo is extremely limited due to the invasiveness of traditional interconnected electrical probes. In this paper, we present a cell-silicon hybrid that integrates native cellular behavior (e.g., gap junction formation and biosignal processing) with nongenetically enabled photosensitivity. This hybrid configuration allows interconnect-free cellular modulation with subcellular spatial resolution for bioelectric studies. Specifically, we hybridize cardiac myofibroblasts with

SUBMITTER: Rotenberg MY 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6842627 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature