Optical Mapping of Cardiomyocytes in Monolayer Derived from Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells

Optical mapping is a powerful imaging technique widely adopted to measure membrane potential changes and intracellular Ca²⁺ variations in excitable tissues using voltage-sensitive dyes and Ca²⁺ indicators, respectively. This powerful tool has rapidly become indispensable in the field of cardiac electrophysiology for studying depolarization wave propagation, estimating the conduction velocity of electrical impulses, and measuring Ca²⁺ dynamics in cardiac cells and tissues. In addition, mapping these electrophysiological parameters is important for understanding cardiac arrhythmia mechanisms. In this review, we delve into the fundamentals of cardiac optical mapping technology and its applications when applied to hiPSC-derived cardiomyocytes and discuss related advantages and challenges. We also provide a detailed description of the processing and analysis of optical mapping data, which is a crucial step in the study of cardiac diseases and arrhythmia mechanisms for extracting and comparing relevant electrophysiological parameters.