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Updated: Jun 4, 2025
An Immunological Model for Heterotopic Heart and Cardiac Muscle Cell Transplantation in Rats
Published on: May 8, 2020
Blastocyst complementation-based rat-derived heart generation reveals cardiac anomaly barriers to interspecies
Shunsuke Yuri1,2, Norie Arisawa1, Kohei Kitamuro1
1Division of Biological Science, Graduate School of Science and Technology, Nara Institute of Science and Technology, 8916-5 Takayama-cho, Ikoma, Nara 630-0192, Japan.
Abstract:
The use of pluripotent stem cells (PSCs) to generate functional organs via blastocyst complementation is a cutting-edge strategy in regenerative medicine. However, existing models that use this method for heart generation do not meet expectations owing to the complexity of heart development. Here, we investigated a Mesp1/2 deficient mouse model, which is characterized by abnormalities in the cardiac mesodermal cells. The injection of either mouse or rat PSCs into Mesp1/2 deficient mouse blastocysts led to successful heart generation. In chimeras, the resulting hearts were predominantly composed of rat cells; however, their functionality was limited to the embryonic developmental stage on day 12.5. These results present the functional limitation of the xenogeneic heart, which poses a significant challenge to the development in mouse-rat chimeras.
