Related Experiment Video
Updated: Apr 7, 2026
Generation, High-Throughput Screening, and Biobanking of Human-Induced Pluripotent Stem Cell-Derived Cardiac Spheroids
Published on: March 10, 2023
Generation of cardiac spheres from primate pluripotent stem cells in a small molecule-based 3D system
Bin Jiang1, Zhen Xiang1, Zongyong Ai1
1Yunnan Key Laboratory of Primate Biomedical Research; Institute of Primate Translational Medicine, Kunming University of Science and Technology, Kunming, Yunnan 650500, China; National Engineering Research Center of Biomedicine and Animal Science, Kunming, Yunnan 650500, China.
Abstract:
Pluripotent stem cell (PSC) usage in heart regenerative medicine requires producing enriched cardiomyocytes (CMs) with mature phenotypes in a defined medium. However, current methods are typically performed in 2D environments that produce immature CMs. Here we report a simple, growth factor-free 3D culture system to rapidly and efficiently generate 85.07 ± 1.8% of spontaneously contractile cardiac spheres (scCDSs) using 3D-cultured human and monkey PSC-spheres. Along with small molecule-based 3D induction, this protocol produces CDSs of up to 95.7% CMs at a yield of up to 237 CMs for every input pluripotent cell, is effective for human and monkey PSCs, and maintains 81.03 ± 12.43% of CDSs in spontaneous contractibility for over three months. These CDSs displayed CM ultrastructure, calcium transient, appropriate pharmacological responses and CM gene expression profiles specific for maturity. Furthermore, 3D-derived CMs displayed more mature phenotypes than those from a parallel 2D-culture. The system is compatible to large-scaly produce CMs for disease study, cell therapy and pharmaceutics screening.
