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Pluripotent Stem Cell Derived Cardiac Cells for Myocardial Repair
Published on: February 3, 2017
Human pluripotent stem cell-based approaches for myocardial repair: from the electrophysiological perspective
Ellen Poon1, Chi-Wing Kong, Ronald A Li
1Stem Cell & Regenerative Medicine Consortium, LKS Faculty of Medicine, University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam, Hong Kong.
Insights
Regenerating heart cells is crucial for treating heart failure. Human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) and induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) can become cardiomyocytes (CMs), offering new therapeutic avenues.
Area of Science:
- Cardiovascular Biology
- Stem Cell Research
- Regenerative Medicine
Background:
- Heart diseases are a major global cause of death.
- Adult cardiomyocytes (CMs) have limited regenerative capacity, leading to heart failure.
- Cell and gene therapies are promising alternatives to organ transplantation for myocardial repair.
Purpose of the Study:
- To review the structure-function properties of human embryonic stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes (hESC-CMs) and induced pluripotent stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes (iPSC-CMs).
- To emphasize the electrophysiology and calcium handling of these cells.
- To discuss challenges and potential solutions for clinical translation and applications like disease modeling and drug screening.
Main Methods:
- Review of current scientific literature on hESC-CMs and iPSC-CMs.
- Analysis of studies focusing on cardiomyocyte differentiation from stem cells.
- Examination of research on electrophysiology and calcium handling in hESC/iPSC-CMs.
Main Results:
- hESCs and iPSCs can be differentiated into functional human cardiomyocytes.
- These stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes (hESC/iPSC-CMs) exhibit specific electrophysiological and Ca(2+) handling properties.
- Significant progress has been made in understanding their potential for therapeutic applications.
Conclusions:
- hESC/iPSC-CMs represent a promising cell source for regenerative medicine and disease modeling.
- Further research is needed to overcome hurdles in their clinical application for heart repair.
- Understanding their detailed properties is key to successful translation.
Abstract:
Heart diseases are a leading cause of mortality worldwide. Terminally differentiated adult cardiomyocytes (CMs) lack the innate ability to regenerate. Their malfunction or significant loss can lead to conditions from cardiac arrhythmias to heart failure. For myocardial repair, cell- and gene-based therapies offer promising alternatives to donor organ transplantation. Human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) can self-renew while maintaining their pluripotency. Direct reprogramming of adult somatic cells to become pluripotent hES-like cells (also known as induced pluripotent stem cells or iPSCs) has been achieved. Both hESCs and iPSCs have been successfully differentiated into genuine human CMs. In this review, we describe our current knowledge of the structure-function properties of hESC/iPSC-CMs, with an emphasis on their electrophysiology and Ca(2+) handling, along with the hurdles faced and potential solutions for translating into clinical and other applications (e.g., disease modeling, cardiotoxicity and drug screening).
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