Project description:The ability to extract somatic cells from a patient and reprogram them to pluripotency opens up new possibilities for personalized medicine. Induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) have been employed to generate beating cardiomyocytes from a patient's skin or blood cells. Here, iPSC methods were used to generate cardiomyocytes starting from the urine of a patient with Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD). Urine was chosen as a starting material because it contains adult stem cells called urine-derived stem cells (USCs). USCs express the canonical reprogramming factors c-myc and klf4, and possess high telomerase activity. Pluripotency of urine-derived iPSC clones was confirmed by immunocytochemistry, RT-PCR and teratoma formation. Urine-derived iPSC clones generated from healthy volunteers and a DMD patient were differentiated into beating cardiomyocytes using a series of small molecules in monolayer culture. Results indicate that cardiomyocytes retain the DMD patient's dystrophin mutation. Physiological assays suggest that dystrophin-deficient cardiomyocytes possess phenotypic differences from normal cardiomyocytes. These results demonstrate the feasibility of generating cardiomyocytes from a urine sample and that urine-derived cardiomyocytes retain characteristic features that might be further exploited for mechanistic studies and drug discovery.
Project description:Abetalipoproteinemia (ABL) is an inherited disorder of lipoprotein metabolism resulting from mutations in microsomal triglyceride transfer protein (MTTP). In addition to expression in the liver and intestine, MTTP is expressed in cardiomyocytes, and cardiomyopathy has been reported in several ABL cases. Using induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) generated from an ABL patient homozygous for a missense mutation (MTTPR46G), we show that human hepatocytes and cardiomyocytes exhibit defects associated with ABL disease, including loss of apolipoprotein B (apoB) secretion and intracellular accumulation of lipids. MTTPR46G iPSC-derived cardiomyocytes failed to secrete apoB, accumulated intracellular lipids, and displayed increased cell death, suggesting intrinsic defects in lipid metabolism due to loss of MTTP function. Importantly, these phenotypes were reversed after the correction of the MTTPR46G mutation by CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing. Together, these data reveal clear cellular defects in iPSC-derived hepatocytes and cardiomyocytes lacking MTTP activity, including a cardiomyocyte-specific regulated stress response to elevated lipids.
Project description:SCN5A is abundant in heart and has a major role in I<sub>Na</sub>. Loss-of-function mutation in SCN5A results in Brugada syndrome (BrS), which causes sudden death in adults. It remains unclear why disease phenotype does not manifest in the young even though mutated SCN5A is expressed in the young. The aim of the present study is to elucidate the timing of the disease manifestation in BrS. A gain-of-function mutation in SCN5A also results in Long QT syndrome type 3 (LQTS3), leading to sudden death in the young. Induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) were generated from a patient with a mixed phenotype of LQTS3 and BrS with the E1784K SCN5A mutation. Here we show that electrophysiological analysis revealed that LQTS3/BrS iPSC-derived cardiomyocytes recapitulate the phenotype of LQTS3 but not BrS. Each ?-subunit of the sodium channel is differentially expressed in embryonic and adult hearts. SCN3B is highly expressed in embryonic hearts and iPSC-derived cardiomyocytes. A heterologous expression system revealed that I<sub>Na</sub> of mutated SCN5A is decreased and SCN3B augmented I<sub>Na</sub> of mutated SCN5A. Knockdown of SCN3B in LQTS3/BrS iPSC-derived cardiomyocytes successfully unmasked the phenotype of BrS. Isogenic control of LQTS3/BrS (corrected-LQTS3/BrS) iPSC-derived cardiomyocytes gained the normal electrophysiological properties.
Project description:<h4>Background</h4>Despite the accumulating genetic and molecular investigations into hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM), it remains unclear how this condition develops and worsens pathologically and clinically in terms of the genetic-environmental interactions. Establishing a human disease model for HCM would help to elucidate these disease mechanisms; however, cardiomyocytes from patients are not easily obtained for basic research. Patient-specific induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) potentially hold much promise for deciphering the pathogenesis of HCM. The purpose of this study is to elucidate the interactions between genetic backgrounds and environmental factors involved in the disease progression of HCM.<h4>Methods and results</h4>We generated iPSCs from 3 patients with HCM and 3 healthy control subjects, and cardiomyocytes were differentiated. The HCM pathological phenotypes were characterized based on morphological properties and high-speed video imaging. The differences between control and HCM iPSC-derived cardiomyocytes were mild under baseline conditions in pathological features. To identify candidate disease-promoting environmental factors, the cardiomyocytes were stimulated by several cardiomyocyte hypertrophy-promoting factors. Interestingly, endothelin-1 strongly induced pathological phenotypes such as cardiomyocyte hypertrophy and intracellular myofibrillar disarray in the HCM iPSC-derived cardiomyocytes. We then reproduced these phenotypes in neonatal cardiomyocytes from the heterozygous Mybpc3-targeted knock in mice. High-speed video imaging with motion vector prediction depicted physiological contractile dynamics in the iPSC-derived cardiomyocytes, which revealed that self-beating HCM iPSC-derived single cardiomyocytes stimulated by endothelin-1 showed variable contractile directions.<h4>Conclusions</h4>Interactions between the patient's genetic backgrounds and the environmental factor endothelin-1 promote the HCM pathological phenotype and contractile variability in the HCM iPSC-derived cardiomyocytes.
Project description:BACKGROUND:More than 90% of individuals with Noonan syndrome (NS) with mutations clustered in the CR2 domain of RAF1 present with severe and often lethal hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM). The signaling pathways by which NS RAF1 mutations promote HCM remain elusive, and so far, there is no known treatment for NS-associated HCM. METHODS:We used patient-derived RAF1S257L/+ and CRISPR-Cas9-generated isogenic control inducible pluripotent stem cell (iPSC)-derived cardiomyocytes to model NS RAF1-associated HCM and to further delineate the molecular mechanisms underlying the disease. RESULTS:We show that mutant iPSC-derived cardiomyocytes phenocopy the pathology seen in hearts of patients with NS by exhibiting hypertrophy and structural defects. Through pharmacological and genetic targeting, we identify 2 perturbed concomitant pathways that, together, mediate HCM in RAF1 mutant iPSC-derived cardiomyocytes. Hyperactivation of mitogen-activated protein kinase kinase 1/2 (MEK1/2), but not extracellular regulated kinase 1/2, causes myofibrillar disarray, whereas the enlarged cardiomyocyte phenotype is a direct consequence of increased extracellular regulated kinase 5 (ERK5) signaling, a pathway not previously known to be involved in NS. RNA-sequencing reveals genes with abnormal expression in RAF1 mutant iPSC-derived cardiomyocytes and identifies subsets of genes dysregulated by aberrant MEK1/2 or ERK5 pathways that could contribute to the NS-associated HCM. CONCLUSIONS:Taken together, the results of our study identify the molecular mechanisms by which NS RAF1 mutations cause HCM and reveal downstream effectors that could serve as therapeutic targets for treatment of NS and perhaps other, more common, congenital HCM disorders.
Project description:?-adrenergic signaling pathways mediate key aspects of cardiac function. Its dysregulation is associated with a range of cardiac diseases, including dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM). Previously, we established an iPSC model of familial DCM from patients with a mutation in TNNT2, a sarcomeric protein. Here, we found that the ?-adrenergic agonist isoproterenol induced mature ?-adrenergic signaling in iPSC-derived cardiomyocytes (iPSC-CMs) but that this pathway was blunted in DCM iPSC-CMs. Although expression levels of several ?-adrenergic signaling components were unaltered between control and DCM iPSC-CMs, we found that phosphodiesterases (PDEs) 2A and PDE3A were upregulated in DCM iPSC-CMs and that PDE2A was also upregulated in DCM patient tissue. We further discovered increased nuclear localization of mutant TNNT2 and epigenetic modifications of PDE genes in both DCM iPSC-CMs and patient tissue. Notably, pharmacologic inhibition of PDE2A and PDE3A restored cAMP levels and ameliorated the impaired ?-adrenergic signaling of DCM iPSC-CMs, suggesting therapeutic potential.
Project description:Genetically unmodified cardiomyocytes mandated for cardiac regenerative therapy is conceivable by "foot-print free" reprogramming of somatic cells to induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC). In this study, we report generation of foot-print free hiPSC through messenger RNA (mRNA) based reprograming. Subsequently, we characterize cardiomyocytes derived from these hiPSC using molecular and electrophysiological methods to characterize their applicability for regenerative medicine. Our results demonstrate that mRNA-iPSCs differentiate ontogenetically into cardiomyocytes with increased expression of early commitment markers of mesoderm, cardiac mesoderm, followed by cardiac specific transcriptional and sarcomeric structural and ion channel genes. Furthermore, these cardiomyocytes stained positively for sarcomeric and ion channel proteins. Based on multi-electrode array (MEA) recordings, these mRNA-hiPSC derived cardiomyocytes responded predictably to various pharmacologically active drugs that target adrenergic, sodium, calcium and potassium channels. The cardiomyocytes responded chronotropically to isoproterenol in a dose dependent manner, inotropic activity of nifidipine decreased spontaneous contractions. Moreover, Sotalol and E-4031 prolonged QT intervals, while TTX reduced sodium influx. Our results for the first time show a systemic evaluation based on molecular, structural and functional properties of cardiomyocytes differentiated from mRNA-iPSC. These results, coupled with feasibility of generating patient-specific iPSCs hold great promise for the development of large-scale generation of clinical grade cardiomyocytes for cardiac regenerative medicine.
Project description:Mitochondrial diseases are genetically heterogeneous and present a broad clinical spectrum among patients; in most cases, genetic determinants of mitochondrial diseases are heteroplasmic mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) mutations. However, it is uncertain whether and how heteroplasmic mtDNA mutations affect particular cellular fate-determination processes, which are closely associated with the cell-type-specific pathophysiology of mitochondrial diseases. In this study, we established two isogenic induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) lines each carrying different proportions of a heteroplasmic m.3243A>G mutation from the same patient; one exhibited apparently normal and the other showed most likely impaired mitochondrial respiratory function. Low proportions of m.3243A>G exhibited no apparent molecular pathogenic influence on directed differentiation into neurons and cardiomyocytes, whereas high proportions of m.3243A>G showed both induced neuronal cell death and inhibited cardiac lineage commitment. Such neuronal and cardiac maturation defects were also confirmed using another patient-derived iPSC line carrying quite high proportion of m.3243A>G. In conclusion, mitochondrial respiratory dysfunction strongly inhibits maturation and survival of iPSC-derived neurons and cardiomyocytes; our presenting data also suggest that appropriate mitochondrial maturation actually contributes to cellular fate-determination processes during development.
Project description:Myotonic dystrophy (DM) is the most common autosomal dominant muscular dystrophy and encompasses both skeletal muscle and cardiac complications. DM is nucleotide repeat expansion disorder in which type 1 (DM1) is due to a trinucleotide repeat expansion on chromosome 19 and type 2 (DM2) arises from a tetranucleotide repeat expansion on chromosome 3. Developing representative models of DM in animals has been challenging due to instability of nucleotide repeat expansions, especially for DM2, which is characterized by nucleotide repeat expansions often greater than 5,000 copies. To investigate mechanisms of human DM, we generated cellular models of DM1 and DM2. We used regulated MyoD expression to reprogram urine-derived cells into myotubes. In this myogenic cell model, we found impaired dystrophin expression, in the presence of muscleblind-like 1 (MBNL1) foci, and aberrant splicing in DM1 but not in DM2 cells. We generated induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC) from healthy controls and DM1 and DM2 subjects, and we differentiated these into cardiomyocytes. DM1 and DM2 cells displayed an increase in RNA foci concomitant with cellular differentiation. iPSC-derived cardiomyocytes from DM1 but not DM2 had aberrant splicing of known target genes and MBNL sequestration. High-resolution imaging revealed tight association between MBNL clusters and RNA foci in DM1. Ca2+ transients differed between DM1- and DM2 iPSC-derived cardiomyocytes, and each differed from healthy control cells. RNA-sequencing from DM1- and DM2 iPSC-derived cardiomyocytes revealed distinct misregulation of gene expression, as well as differential aberrant splicing patterns. Together, these data support that DM1 and DM2, despite some shared clinical and molecular features, have distinct pathological signatures.