New biomimetic culture system enables more in-depth testing of drugs and gene therapies

Researchers at the University of Louisville have developed an easily reproducible system that allows them to keep alive human heart slices, allowing for more in-depth testing of new drugs and gene therapies.

This new biomimetic culture system mimics the living organ environment through continuous electrical stimulation and oxygenation, maintaining the viability and functionality of the heart segments for six days. Previous culture systems retained functional heart slices for up to 24 hours. The extended viability period will improve preclinical testing of the efficacy and toxicity of new drugs.

"This new method preserves perfectly functional human heart slices for six days in the culture environment.This facilitates badessment of the effectiveness of heart failure therapeutics and therapies. cardiotoxins on human heart tissue without the need for human living, "said Tamer MA Mohamed, Ph.D., who led the research.

The system provides access to a complete 3D multicellular system that reflects the functional and structural status of the heart in a living person.

"This system will save time and reduce costs of clinical trials during Phase 1 of the research, which includes toxicity testing and evidence of efficacy," said Mohamed. "In addition to drugs, we demonstrated the effectiveness of the system to test gene therapy."

Optimized support for maintaining slices of heart tissue is described in an article published online last week in Traffic Research, a publication of the American Heart Association. It will appear in the print and online edition of August 30, 2019. With Mohamed, the research was conducted by Qinghui Ou, B.Sc., Riham RE Abouleisa, Ph.D. and others at UofL, as well colleagues in California, Colorado, the United Kingdom, Germany and Egypt. UofL has a provisional patent application on this technology.