Microfluidic Devices Mimic and Treat Cardiovascular Disease

By Anna C. Martinez

Cardiovascular disease, or CVD, is the leading cause of death for people in the United States. The most common causes of CVD are a lack of exercise, poor diet, high blood pressure, and high cholesterol. People with CVD are more susceptible to heart attacks, a phenomenon that occurs when the heart does not receive enough blood. One in five heart attacks are silent, meaning that the affected person may not realize that they are having a heart attack right away.¹

Microfluidics is a developing field that involves moving fluids through miniscule devices. This fluid manipulation often emulates biological, chemical, and physical processes, such as the movement of blood through veins, arteries, and the heart.² Microfluidic devices can be used to mimic blood flow through the heart to help diagnose and treat CVD.

Diagnosing CVD with Microfluidics

Biomarkers are medical signs that inform people what is happening inside the body.³ Because cardiac troponin T (cTnT) and myoglobin (Myo) are antibodies that are typically found in cardiac muscle, they are often used as biomarkers for the heart. Abnormal amounts of these biomarkers in the heart are signs that someone may be developing CVD.

Microfluidic chips can measure cTnT and Myo levels in the blood using chemiluminescence and immunofluorescence.⁴ These optical detection methods involve labeling cTnT and Myo with fluorescent markers and quantifying the biomarker levels as they circulate through the microfluidic chip. Abnormal biomarker levels, as indicated by the fluorescent marker counts, show a potential risk of CVD being present.

Cardiovascular Microfluidic Models and CVD Treatments

The primary treatment for CVD is drug therapy. Microfluidic devices that emulate the cardiovascular system can be used to assess the efficacy of new drug treatments. These microfluidic devices mimic the blood flow and pressure that is typical in people with CVD.⁴ By injecting drug treatments into circulation inside a cardiovascular-mimetic device, researchers can ascertain which treatment therapies are the most effective at treating CVD.