Engineers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), in collaboration with researchers from other institutions, have developed a groundbreaking bionic heart designed to provide a more realistic model for testing artificial heart valves and other cardiac devices.
According to a report from MIT News, the innovative device is based on a real biological heart, which has been enhanced by replacing its natural muscle tissue with a soft robotic matrix. This matrix mimics the natural muscle fiber patterns of the heart, allowing it to replicate the heart’s natural squeezing and twisting motion that pumps blood throughout the body.
The artificial muscles resemble bubble wrap, with inflatable ‘bubbles’ that can be remotely activated to simulate the heart’s contractions. This design was inspired by the concept that cardiac muscle forms a helical band around the heart’s ventricles. To simplify replication, the engineers flattened the tissue into a long band, making it easier to recreate.
Using cardiac tissue from an explanted pig heart, the team fabricated a matrix of artificial muscle fibers composed of thin air tubes. These were connected to the inflatable bubbles and placed inside a silicone mold cast from an original heart, ensuring anatomical accuracy and compatibility with the robotic system.
The resulting biohybrid heart offers a promising platform for cardiac device testing. MIT researchers believe this model could significantly reduce the cost and time required for developing new cardiac devices by enabling more efficient and realistic testing.
“Regulatory testing of cardiac devices requires many fatigue tests and animal tests,” said Ellen Roche, assistant professor of mechanical engineering at MIT. “This new device could realistically represent what happens in a real heart, reducing the need for animal testing and accelerating design iterations.”
The demand for prosthetic heart valves and related devices is growing rapidly, with the market currently valued at over $5 billion and expected to grow by nearly 13% over the next six years. The MIT team’s findings were published in the journal Science Robotics and supported in part by the National Science Foundation.
