Three-dimensional printing physiology laboratory technology

Abstract

Since its inception in 19th-century Germany, the physiology laboratory has been a complex and expensive research enterprise involving experts in various fields of science and engineering. Physiology research has been critically dependent on cutting-edge technological support of mechanical, electrical, optical, and more recently computer engineers. Evolution of modern experimental equipment is constrained by lack of direct communication between the physiological community and industry producing this equipment. Fortunately, recent advances in open source technologies, including three-dimensional printing, open source hardware and software, present an exciting opportunity to bring the design and development of research instrumentation to the end user, i.e., life scientists. Here we provide an overview on how to develop customized, cost-effective experimental equipment for physiology laboratories.

Keywords: 3-D printing; heart physiology; open source manufacturing; optical mapping.

Fig. 1.

A digital design of a screw thread converted to a stereolithography (STL) file and printed. An STL file stores the three-dimensional (3-D) geometry as a collection coordinates (x,y,z) and surface normals (n).

Fig. 2.

Digital designs and 3-D printed objects for physiology experiments. A: mouse tissue chamber. B: example electrode holders encapsulating platinum-iridium wire. C: mouse heart restrainer. D: cost analysis between printed and industry bought products. Black asterisk, cannula; pink asterisk, atrial pacing electrode; teal asterisk, ventricular pacing electrode. *Radnoti Tissue Camber, No. 166060, 200 ml; **Harvard Apparatus, Coaxial Stimulation Electrode, No. 730219; ***Tritech Research, Narishige Magnet-Mount Three Axis Coarse Micromanipulator, MB-PP2. NA, not applicable.

Fig. 3.

Physiological experiment of a Langendorff-perfused mouse heart. A: posterior surface of mouse heart, where white dotted line and black/teal square indicate location of activation map (B) and optical signals (C), respectively. B: activation map of the transmembrane potential across the epicardial surface of mouse heart. C: representative transmembrane potential (V_m) and calcium transient (CaT) signals during pacing (top) and induction of ventricular fibrillation (bottom). White square pulse, location of pacing electrode.

Fig. 4.

Digital design and 3-D printed tissue chamber in the shape of a human torso and scaled proportionally for a rabbit heart.

Fig. 5.

Prototyping a CLARITY chamber. A: photograph of the original CLARITY chamber that was not printed. B–E: sequential 3-D printed (top) CLARITY chambers and digital designs (bottom).