A miniature, three-dimensional heart model, called the “heart-on-a-chip,” successfully used reprogrammed stem cells to determine cardiotoxicity of cancer drugs on the human heart, according to a study published in Lab on a Chip.
Additionally, the heart-on-a-chip matured the stem cells, making them more accurate representations of heart cells for testing.
“It can predict the cardiotoxicity associated with certain cancer drugs in a way that hasn’t really been described to this level,” Arun Sharma, PhD, research scientist at Cedars-Sinai Cancer, told Healio.