Case study: Platinum electrodes for cardiac tissue pacing in engineered human heart models

Understanding how medicines interact with human tissues is a growing priority across biomedical research, particularly for chemotherapy drugs where life‑saving anticancer activity can also cause serious off‑target effects.

Cardiotoxicity remains a key challenge in cancer treatment, especially for anthracycline therapies such as doxorubicin. To address this, a Dutch research consortium has developed engineered human heart tissues that can be electrically paced and analysed in detail, enabling contractile strength and metabolic responses to be measured under well‑controlled conditions.

Instead of relying solely on animal models, the team used human stem‑cell‑derived heart tissues that beat rhythmically in vitro and can be exposed to defined drug doses. This platform allows direct observation of mechanical function, mitochondrial and energy metabolism, and dose–response behaviour using a single, human‑relevant system.
For labs building similar models, this study illustrates how careful control of stimulation and assay conditions can support more translatable cardiotoxicity data.

Study Overview (Stem Cell Reports Study)

This study, published in Stem Cell Reports, was carried out by researchers from Radboud University Medical Center, the University of Twente, Leiden University Medical Centre and the Dutch United for Metabolic Diseases network, with additional analytical contributions from Multicore Dynamics in the UK.

The study specifies the use of platinum electrodes supplied by Advent Research Materials to provide electrical pacing of the engineered heart tissues during doxorubicin exposure. Platinum was selected because it offers a stable electrochemical interface in physiological media, resists corrosion under repeated stimulation and maintains predictable impedance over extended recordings. These properties are critical where any leaching or surface instability could alter cardiomyocyte behaviour or appear as contamination in downstream metabolomics readouts.

For cardiac tissue and organoid labs, this work highlights a practical configuration of Advent high‑purity platinum wire as pacing electrodes in metabolomics‑grade heart tissue assays. In practice, using inert platinum conductors helps maintain consistent field stimulation over long experiments, protects the integrity of metabolite profiling and supports robust, repeatable cardiotoxicity measurements. Research teams developing similar cardiac or neuromuscular platforms can draw on the same materials choices to de‑risk their electrostimulation setup.

The Science Made Simple

Chemotherapy drugs save lives, but some of them can also harm the heart. A key example is doxorubicin, a widely used cancer medicine which is known to cause heart damage in some patients. Scientists want to understand exactly why this damage happens inside heart cells, because this knowledge could guide safer drug use and new protective treatments.

In this study, researchers created tiny beating heart tissues in the lab using human stem cells. These tissues behave like miniature sections of real heart muscle. The team then added doxorubicin and measured two things:

• how strongly the tissues could contract
• which small molecules inside the cells changed while the drug was present

To make the heart tissues beat in a controlled way, the researchers applied electrical pacing using platinum electrodes supplied by Advent Research Materials. This allowed them to record how much force the tissues produced at different time points.

The main scientific finding is that doxorubicin quickly reduced the strength of contraction. At the same time, the drug changed several of the cell’s main energy pathways. These changes help explain why the heart becomes weaker.

Advent Research Materials in use | High Purity Platinum wire

The paper specifies the use of platinum electrodes supplied by Advent Research Materials for electrical pacing. Platinum was selected because it provides a stable electrochemical interface in physiological media and can be used for repeated stimulation without corrosion.

In practice, this helps researchers maintain electrical consistency during long experiments and protects the integrity of subsequent metabolite profiling.

Why platinum is suited to cardiac tissue research

Engineered tissues are increasingly used to study human physiology without the variability inherent in animal samples. For cardiac platforms, the choice of stimulation metal is critical, because any instability at the electrode surface can alter cell behaviour or appear as contamination in analytical workflows.

In cardiac tissue and organoid platforms, platinum is widely used because of:

• Electrochemical stability in culture media over long experiments
• Resistance to corrosion and leaching during repeated stimulation cycles
• Predictable impedance that supports consistent pacing and recording conditions

These properties make platinum a reliable choice for tissue‑based cardiac work, organoid platforms and micro‑scale bioelectronic systems. Typical formats for research include fine wire for custom electrodes, rods for machined components and bespoke assemblies for integration into organ‑on‑chip devices.

Looking ahead

As more laboratories adopt engineered tissues for cardiac and neuromuscular applications, demand has grown for research‑grade metals available in wire, rod and bespoke electrode formats. Advent supplies platinum alongside a wide range of high‑purity metals used for electrical interfacing, bioelectronic assemblies and analytical systems. For support selecting platinum or other metals for biomedical research applications, including guidance on wire diameter, purity and electrode configuration, please contact the Advent team.

Read the full study in Stem Cell Reports: Conte et al., Cross-modal integration of metabolomics and cardiac functionality captures dynamic metabotoxic effects of doxorubicin in engineered heart tissues (2025), DOI: 10.1016/j.stemcr.2025.102725.