Cardiac Organogenesis in Vitro: Reestablishment of Three-Dimensional Tissue Architecture by Dissociated Neonatal Rat Ventricular Cells

The mammalian heart does not regenerate in vivo. The heart is, therefore, an excellent candidate for tissue engineering approaches and for the use of biosynthetic devices in the replacement or augmentation of defective tissue. Unfortunately, little is known about the capacity of isolated heart cells to re-establish tissue architectures in vitro. In this study, we examined the possibility that cardiac cells possess a latent organizational potential that is unrealized within the mechanically active tissue but that can be accessed in quiescent environments in culture. In the series of experiments presented here, total cell populations were isolated from neonatal rat ventricles and recombined in rotating bioreactors containing a serum-free medium and surfaces for cell attachment. The extent to which tissue-like structure and contractile function were established was assessed using a combination of morphological, physiological, and biochemical techniques. We found that mixed populations of ventricular cells fo...