Development and modeling of cardiac autonomic innervation

Area of Science:

• Cardiovascular Biology
• Neuroscience
• Stem Cell Biology

Background:

• Autonomic innervation critically influences heart development, function, and response to stress.
• Investigating in vivo neurocardiac interactions presents significant challenges.
• There is a need for sophisticated in vitro models of innervated cardiac tissues.

Purpose of the Study:

• To review cardiac autonomic innervation mechanisms.
• To discuss methods for generating cardiomyocytes and autonomic neurons from human pluripotent stem cells.
• To present a roadmap for developing advanced in vitro models of cardiac autonomic innervation.

Main Methods:

• Review of embryonic development of the heart and autonomic neurons.
• Analysis of functional consequences of cardiac autonomic innervation.
• Highlighting methods for generating cardiomyocytes and autonomic neurons from human pluripotent stem cells.
• Discussion of existing in vivo and in vitro cardiac innervation models.

Main Results:

• Cardiac autonomic innervation plays crucial trophic roles in neonatal and adult hearts.
• Human pluripotent stem cells offer a viable source for generating functional cardiomyocytes and autonomic neurons.
• Existing models have benefits and limitations for studying cardiac innervation.

Conclusions:

• Advanced in vitro models are essential for dissecting neurocardiac interactions.
• Development of high-fidelity, mature stem cell-derived models is crucial for future research.
• These models will address outstanding questions in cardiac autonomic innervation and disease.