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REVIEW ARTICLE

Fabrication and Biomedical Applications of

Heart-on-a-chip

Qingzhen Yang 1,2,3,4 , Zhanfeng Xiao , Xuemeng Lv , Tingting Zhang *, Han Liu 6
5
1,2
1,2
1 The Key Laboratory of Biomedical Information Engineering of Ministry of Education, School of Life Science and
Technology, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an, Shaanxi 710049, P.R. China
2 Bioinspired Engineering and Biomechanics Center (BEBC), Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an, Shaanxi 710049, P.R. China
3 Micro-/Nano-technology Research Center, State Key Laboratory for Manufacturing Systems Engineering, Xi’an Jiaotong
University, Xi’an, Shaanxi 710049, P.R. China
4 Research Institute of Xi’an Jiaotong University, Hangzhou, Zhejiang 311215, P.R. China
5 College of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, Shaanxi University of Science and Technology, Xi’an, Shaanxi 710021,
P.R. China
6 Collaborative Innovation Center for Chinese Medicine and Respiratory Diseases Co-constructed by Henan Province
and Education Ministry of P.R. China, Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences, Henan University of Chinese Medicine,
Zhengzhou 450016, P.R. China

Abstract: Heart diseases have become the main killer threatening human health, and various methods have been developed to
study heart disease. Among them, heart-on-a-chip has emerged in recent years as a method for constructing disease (or normal)
models in vitro and is considered as a promising tool to study heart diseases. Compared with other methods, the advantages
of heart-on-a-chip include the high portability, high throughput, and the capability to mimic microenvironments in vivo. It has
shown a great potential in disease mechanism study and drug screening. In this paper, we review the recent advances in heart-
on-a-chip, including the fabrication methods (e.g., 3D bioprinting) and biomedical applications. By analyzing the structure
of the existing heart-on-a-chip, we proposed that a highly integrated heart-on-a-chip includes four elements: Microfluidic
chips, cells/microtissues, microactuators to construct the microenvironment, and microsensors for results readout. Finally, the
current challenges and future directions of heart-on-a-chip are discussed.

Keywords: Heart-on-a-chip; Microfluidic chip; Disease model; In vitro culture; Drug screening

*Correspondence to: Tingting Zhang, College of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, Shaanxi University of Science and Technology, Xi’an,
Shaanxi 710021, P.R. China; tting.zhang@sust.edu.cn

Received: April 21, 2021; Accepted: May 25, 2021; Published Online: June 26, 2021
(This article belongs to the Special Section: Bioprinting of 3D Functional Tissue Constructs)
Citation: Yang Q, Xiao Z, Lv X, et al., 2021, Fabrication and Biomedical Applications of Heart-on-a-chip. Int J Bioprint,
7(3):370. http://doi.org/10.18063/ijb.v7i3.370

1. Introduction (or normal) models. Overall, animal model and cell
culture are the two frequently used methods.
Heart is one of the most important organs in human body.
It provides power for blood circulation which supplies These two methods have their own advantages
oxygen and nutrients to organs and removes metabolic and limitations. For animal model, it is different
waste. In recent years, with the change in dietary with human being in physiological conditions and
[3]
structure and the increase of life pressure, heart diseases organ functionalities . Thus, the results of animal
have become the leading cause of death worldwide [1,2] . To experiments may not precisely predict the response
study the pathogenesis of heart diseases and pursue the and/or functionalities of humans. In addition, animal
effective treatments, it is of need to establish the disease experiments have other limitations, such as time-

© 2021 Yang, et al. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/
licenses/by/4.0/), permitting distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is cited.
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