Biological cardio-micro-pumps for microbioreactors and analytical micro-systems

Bio-hybrid microsystems actuated by living cells, as micro-bio-actuators and micro-bio-pumps have been developed recently. In these devices biological cells may be powered without external energy sources and the movement or the contraction of muscle cells trigger off the flow of fluid (i.e. culture medium or blood) through microchannels in micro-multi-bioreactor systems. Isolated and in vitro cultured cardiomyocytes (cardiac cells) are the most promising bio-material, which can be used to design a micro-bio-pump/actuator. These spontaneously contracting cells are autonomously powered with glucose as an energy source without any external power supply or stimulus, unlike conventional micro-actuators/micro-pumps. Cardio-micro-bio-pumps/actuators are using collective, synchronous contracting forces of cardiac cells or cardiac cell sheets to drive the flow of fluid. The feasibility of building such actuators was demonstrated in a few examples of bio-hybrid microsystems actuated by single or sheeted cardiomyocytes. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.