Engineering Cardiac Tissue for Advanced Heart-on-a-chip Platforms.

Cardiovascular disease is a major cause of mortality worldwide, and current preclinical models including traditional animal models and 2D cell culture models have limitations in replicating human native heart physiology and response to drugs. Heart-on-a-chip (HoC) technology offers a promising solution by combining the advantages of cardiac tissue engineering and microfluidics to create in vitro 3D cardiac models, which can mimic key aspects of human microphysiological systems and provide controllable microenvironments. In this review, we introduce recent advances in HoC technologies, including engineered cardiac microtissue construction in vitro, microfluidic chip fabrication, microenvironmental stimulation, and real-time feedback systems. We focus on the development of cardiac tissue engineering methods for 3D microtissue preparation, advanced strategies for HoC fabrication, and current applications of these platforms. We also discuss major challenges in HoC fabrication and provide our perspective on the potential for these platforms to advance research and clinical applications. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.