Passive Stretch Induces Structural and Functional Maturation of Engineered Heart Muscle as Predicted by Computational Modeling.

ABSTRACT: The ability to differentiate human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs) into cardiomyocytes (CMs) makes them an attractive source for repairing injured myocardium, disease modeling, and drug testing. Although current differentiation protocols yield hPSC-CMs to >90% efficiency, hPSC-CMs exhibit immature characteristics. With the goal of overcoming this limitation, we tested the effects of varying passive stretch on engineered heart muscle (EHM) structural and functional maturation, guided by computational modeling. Human embryonic stem cells (hESCs, H7 line) or human induced pluripotent stem cells (IMR-90 line) were differentiated to hPSC-derived cardiomyocytes (hPSC-CMs) in vitro using a small molecule based protocol. hPSC-CMs were characterized by troponin+ flow cytometry as well as electrophys

SUBMITTER: Abilez OJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5785460 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature