Embryonic stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes as a model to study fetal arrhythmia related to maternal disease.

ABSTRACT: Embryonic stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes (ESC-CM) have many of the phenotypic properties of authentic cardiomyocytes, and great interest has been shown in their possibilities for modelling human disease. Obstetric cholestasis affects 1 in 200 pregnant women in the United Kingdom. It is characterized by raised serum bile acids and complicated by premature delivery and unexplained fetal death at late gestation. It has been suggested that the fetal death is caused by the enhanced arrhythmogenic effect of bile acids in the fetal heart, and shown that neonatal susceptibility to bile acid-induced arrhythmia is lost in the adult rat cardiomyocyte. However, the mechanisms of the observed bile acid effects are not fully understood and their in vivo study in human beings is difficult. Here we use

SUBMITTER: Abdul Kadir SH 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4516522 | biostudies-literature | 2009 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature