Muscle-on-chip: An in vitro model for donor-host cardiomyocyte coupling

A key aspect of cardiac cell-based therapy is the proper integration of newly formed cardiomyocytes into the remnant myocardium after injury. In this issue, Aratyn-Schaus et al. (2016. J. Cell Biol. http ://dx.doi.org/10.1083/jcb.201508026) describe an in vitro model for heterogeneous cardiomyocyte coupling in which force transmission between cells can be measured.