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Updated: Aug 9, 2026
Preclinical Cardiac Electrophysiology Assessment by Dual Voltage and Calcium Optical Mapping of Human Organotypic Cardiac Slices
Published on: June 16, 2020
Modeling cardiac electrical activity using cardiac organoids for drug screening
Qi Zhang1, Nana Yang2, Jiahong Chen3
1The Institute of Cardiovascular Sciences and Institute of Systems Biomedicine, School of Basic Medical Sciences, State Key Laboratory of Vascular Homeostasis and Remodeling, NHC Key Laboratory of Cardiovascular Molecular Biology and Regulatory Peptides, Beijing Key Laboratory of Cardiovascular Receptors Research, Health Science Center, Peking University, Beijing 100191, China; Department of Cell Biology, School of Basic Medical Sciences, Peking University Stem Cell Research Center, Peking University, Beijing 100191, China.
Cardiac organoids mimic heart tissue, offering a better model for studying arrhythmia and screening antiarrhythmic drugs. This advanced model provides insights into electrical activity and drug responses more effectively than single cells.
Area of Science:
- Cardiovascular Research
- Biomedical Engineering
- Stem Cell Biology
Background:
- Arrhythmia poses a significant mortality risk, with limited diagnostic and therapeutic strategies.
- Evaluating drug effects on cardiac rhythm using cellular electrical activity is challenging.
- Cardiac organoids present a promising model for arrhythmia research and drug screening.
Purpose of the Study:
- To validate cardiac organoids as a functional, tissue-like model for studying cardiac electrophysiology.
- To assess the utility of cardiac organoids in drug screening for antiarrhythmic compounds.
- To investigate the electrophysiological characteristics of cardiac organoids under various drug-induced conditions.
Main Methods:
- Established cardiac organoids from human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs), incorporating cardiomyocytes and endothelial cells.
- Applied multielectrode array (MEA), calcium signal optical mapping, and patch clamp analysis to assess electrophysiological activity.
- Induced arrhythmias using E-4301, cisapride, and ATX-II to evaluate drug effects and model disease states.
Main Results:
- Cardiac organoid electrical activity and calcium transients closely resembled native cardiac tissue, unlike in vitro cardiomyocyte cultures.
- Patch clamp analysis identified distinct subpopulations of ventricular-like cardiomyocytes within the organoids.
- Drug-induced electrophysiological changes in organoids mirrored those observed in cardiac tissue.
Conclusions:
- Cardiac organoids exhibit validated tissue-like electrophysiological properties, making them superior models for arrhythmia research.
- These organoids serve as an effective platform for screening novel antiarrhythmic drugs.
- The findings support the use of cardiac organoids for understanding cardiac rhythm formation and disease.
