Transferrin improved the generation of cardiomyocyte from human pluripotent stem cells for myocardial infarction repair
Ontology highlight
ABSTRACT: Human pluripotent stem cell (hPSC)-derived cardiomyocytes (CMs) hold great promise for the repair of the injured heart, but optimal cell production in a fully chemically defined and cost-effective system is essential for the efficacy and safety of cell transplantation therapies. In this study, we provided a simple and efficient strategy for cardiac differentiation from hPSCs and performed functional evaluation in a rat model of myocardial infarction. Using a chemically defined medium including four components, recombinant human albumin, ascorbic acid, human transferrin, and RPMI 1640, we developed a manageable and cost-effective protocol for robust generation of CMs from hPSCs. Interestingly, the addition of transferrin helped hPSCs to transit from TeSR-E8 medium to the simple cardiac differentiation medium and successfully initiated mesoderm differentiation without significant cell death. The CM generation efficiency was up to 85% based on cTnT expression. We performed transcriptome profiling from differentiation day 0 to 35, and characterized interesting dynamic change of cardiac genes. CMs derived from transferrin supplemented simple medium have similar transcriptome and the maturation level compared to cardiomyocytes generated in B27 minus insulin medium as well as their in vivo counterparts. Importantly, after transplantation, hPSC derived CMs survived in the infarcted rat heart, significantly improved the physiological function and reduced fibrosis. Our study offers an easy-to-use and cost-effective method for cardiac differentiation and facilitates the translational application of hPSC-derived CMs for heart repair.
Project description:Cardiomyocytes can be differentiated from human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs) in defined conditions, but efficient and consistent cardiomyocyte differentiation often requires expensive reagents such as B27 supplement or recombinant albumin. Using a chemically defined albumin-free (E8 basal) medium, we identified heparin as a novel factor that significantly promotes cardiomyocyte differentiation efficiency, and developed an efficient method to differentiate hPSCs into cardiomyocytes. The treatment of heparin helped cardiomyocyte differentiation consistently reach at least 80% purity (up to 95%) from more than 10 different hPSC lines in chemically defined DMEM/F-12 based medium on either Matrigel or defined matrices like Vitronectin and Synthemax. One of heparinâs main functions was to act as a WNT modulator that helped promote robust and consistent cardiomyocyte production. Our study provides an efficient, reliable, and cost-effective method for cardiomyocyte derivation from hPSCs that can be used for potential large-scale drug screening, disease modeling, and future cellular therapies. 12 human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs) at three different cardiac differentiation times (0 Days, 3 Days, 6 Days, 10 Days) under different culture conditions (+/- Heparin, +/- IWP2).
Project description:Perlecan (HSPG2), a multifunctional heparan sulphate proteoglycan (HSPG), is a key player in extracellular matrix maturation and stabilisation. Structurally perlecan is similar to agrin, another HSPG known to contribute to cardiomyocyte phenotype switching by reverting hypertrophy. Although perlecan is crucial for cardiac development, its role in cardiomyocyte phenotypic switching is unknown. Here we show perlecan expression increases over time during the differentiation of pluripotent stem cells to cardiomyocytes (hPSC-CMs). Haploinusuffient hPSCs (HSPG2+/-) differentiate efficiently towards cardiomyocytes with minimal transcriptomic differences seen early in differentiation, but wide-ranging changes seen in late-stage cardiomyocytes. These differences are associated with structural, contractile, metabolic, and ECM genes. In keeping, late-stageHSPG2+/-hPSC-CMs display reduced maximal metabolic capacity and increased extracellular acidification rate, characteristics of reduced maturity. Moreover, engineered heart tissues produced withHSPG2+/-hPSC-CMs exhibit increased ECM remodelling, reduced tissue thickness and force generation. Wild-type hPSC-CMs grown on a substrate coated with a perlecan peptide showed increased cardiomyocyte nucleation typical of hypertrophic growth, suggesting that perlecan plays the opposite role of agrin by promoting cellular maturation rather than hyperplasia and proliferation. These data show that perlecan promotes cardiomyocyte maturity, possibly through hypertrophic growth. Targeting perlecan-dependent signalling may, therefore, reverse the phenotypic switch common to many forms of heart failure, by improving cardiomyocyte functionality.
Project description:hPSC-CMs resemble immature embryonic or fetal CMs rather than mature adult CMs, and have limitations in disease modeling and pharmacological studies. Therefore, hPSCs-derived mature and ventricular CMs are required for more accurate in vitro modeling of adult-onset cardiac disease and drug discovery. FGF4+AA-treated hESC-CMs robustly released acute myocardial infarction (AMI) biomarkers (cTnI, CK-MB, and myoglobin) into culture medium in response to hypoxic injury. Hypoxia-responsive genes related to cellular responses to glycolytic processes, oxygen levels, HIF-1 signaling, apoptotic processes, and regulation of cell death including potential cardiac biomarkers proved in clinical studies in the diagnosis and prognosis of coronary artery diseases were induced in FGF4+AA-treated hESC-CMs in response to hypoxia based on transcriptome analyses.
Project description:Cardiac fibroblasts (CFs) play critical roles in heart development, homeostasis, and disease. The limited availability of human CFs from native heart impedes investigations of CF biology and their role in disease. Human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs) provide a highly renewable and genetically defined cell source, but efficient methods to generate CFs from hPSCs have not been described. Here, we show differentiation of hPSCs using sequential modulation of Wnt and FGF signaling to generate second heart field progenitors that efficiently give rise to hPSC-CFs. The hPSC-CFs resemble native heart CFs in cell morphology, proliferation, gene expression, fibroblast marker expression, production of extracellular matrix and myofibroblast transformation induced by TGFβ1 and angiotensin II. Furthermore, hPSC-CFs exhibit a more embryonic phenotype when compared to fetal and adult primary human CFs. Co-culture of hPSC-CFs with hPSC-derived cardiomyocytes distinctly alters the electrophysiological properties (EP) of the cardiomyocytes compared to co-culture with dermal fibroblasts (DFs). The hPSC-CFs provide a powerful cell source for research, drug discovery, precision medicine, and therapeutic applications in cardiac regeneration.
Project description:Cardiovascular diseases are a major cause of life-threatening burden around the world. The heart has a very low regeneration capacity and donor organs for transplantation are scarce. Therefore regeneration of lost myocardium with stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes (CMs) provides an attractive strategy for heart repair. Human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs) can be efficiently differentiated in vitro into CMs but the molecular mechanisms behind this process are still not fully understood. In particular identification of secreted autocrine and/or paracrine factors that function as important extrinsic signals remained elusive because the mass spectrometry (MS)-based identification of secreted proteins from cell culture supernatants is impeded by high levels of albumin present in common differentiation media. Thus we established an albumin-free cardiomyogenic differentiation medium and performed secretomics at seven different time points during in vitro differentiation. This analysis led to the identification of 4832 proteins with 1802 being significantly altered during differentiation and 431 of these were annotated as secreted according to gene ontology. Bioinformatics revealed enrichment of extrinsic Wnt pathway-related proteins 3 days upon induction of differentiation and of extracellular matrix proteins in the resulting CMs. Numerous extrinsic components of Wnt, Activin A, Nodal, TGFβ, BMP or FGF signaling pathways were quantitatively assessed during differentiation. Notably, the abundance of pathway agonists was generally lower compared to the respective antagonists but their curves of progression over timer were rather similar. We hypothesize that Activin A, Nodal and TGFβ signaling are turned down shortly upon initiation of cardiac differentiation whereas BMP signaling is switched on. Wnt and FGF signaling peaks between d0 and d3 of differentiation and interestingly, Activin A and TGFβ signaling seem to be reactivated at the cardiac progenitor stages and/or in early CMs.
Project description:Cardiovascular disease is a leading cause of death worldwide. Human pluripotent stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes (hPSC-CMs) hold immense clinical potential and recent studies have enabled generation of virtually pure hPSC-CMs with high efficiency in chemically defined and xeno-free conditions. Despite these advances, hPSC-CMs exhibit an immature phenotype and are arrhythmogenic in vivo, necessitating development of methods to mature these cells. hPSC-CMs undergo significant metabolic alterations during differentiation and maturation. A detailed analysis of the metabolic changes accompanying maturation of hPSC-CMs may prove useful in identifying new strategies to expedite the maturation process and also provide biomarkers for testing or validating hPSC-CM maturation. In this study we identified global metabolic changes which take place during long-term culture and maturation of hPSC-CMs derived from three different hPSC lines. We have identified several metabolic pathways, including phospholipid metabolism and pantothenate and Coenzyme A metabolism, which showed significant enrichment upon maturation in addition to fatty acid oxidation and metabolism. We also identified an increase in glycerophosphocholine and reduction in phosphocholine as potential metabolic biomarkers of maturation. These biomarkers were also affected in a similar manner during murine heart development in vivo. These results support that hPSC-CM maturation is associated with extensive metabolic rewiring and understanding the role of these metabolic changes in maturation process has the potential to develop novel approaches to monitor and expedite hPSC-CM maturation.
Project description:In the heart, cardiomyocytes (CMs) are coupled to capillary endothelial cells (EC), mural cells (e.g. pericytes) and fibroblasts (Fb) promoting structural and electrophysiological tissue maturation as well as vascular network formation. Here, an in vitro model is shown for the investigation of the role of ECs, cardiac pericyte-like cells (PC) and different Fb sources in hPSC-derived bioartificial cardiac tissue (BCT) formation and function. The hPSC-based CMs, ECs, and PCs were differentiated, purified, and characterized for cell-type specific marker expression and function. Differentiated hPSC-PCs were used with hPSC-ECs to generate BCTs and to address their effect on tissue morphology and electromechanical parameters compared to control tissues containing primary dermal or cardiac Fbs.
Project description:Human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs) such as embryonic stem cells and induced pluripotent stem cells are promising materials for cell-based regenerative therapies to heart diseases. However, until realization there are many hurdles such as high efficiency of cardiac differentiation of hPSCs and production of clinical-grade cardiac cells derived from hPSCs. Here, we show that a novel small molecule KY02111 robustly enhances differentiation to functional cardiomyocytes from hPSCs. To reveal how KY02111 function on promoting cardiac differentiation of hPSCs, we analyzed the gene expression profiles in KY02111-treated IMR90-1 hiPSCs using the microarray technique. At Day3 of cardiac differentiation from hiPSCs, KY02111 or DMSO was added in the culture and then the cell population was harvested after 12 or 24 hours for RNA extraction.
Project description:Here, we targeted mCherry to the COUP-TFII genomic locus in NKX2.5eGFP/+ hPSCs. Upon differentiation to atrial and ventricular cardiomyocytes (CMs) this dual atrial COUP-TFIImCherry/+-NKX2.5eGFP/+ reporter line allowed identification and selection of GFP+ (G+)/mCherry+ (M+) CMs following cardiac differentiation. These cells exhibited transcriptional and functional properties of atrial CMs, whereas G+/M- CMs displayed ventricular characteristics. Via CRISPR/Cas9-mediated knockout, we demonstrated that COUP-TFII is not required atrial specification in hPSCs.
Project description:Pluripotent stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes (PSC-CMs) provide an unprecedented opportunity to study human heart development and disease. A major caveat however is that they remain functionally and structurally immature in culture, limiting their potential for disease modeling and regenerative approaches. Here we address the question of how different metabolic pathways can be modulated in order to induce efficient cardiac maturation of hPSC-CMs. We show that PPAR signaling acts in an isoform-specific manner to balance the glycolysis and fatty acid oxidation (FAO) pathways. PPARd activation or inhibition results in efficient respective up- or down-regulation of the gene regulatory networks underlying FAO in hPSC-CMs. PPARd induction further increases mitochondrial and peroxisome content, enhances mitochondrial cristae formation and augments FAO flux. Lastly PPARd activation results in enhanced myofibril organization and increased numbers of bi-nucleated hPSC-CMs. Transient lactate exposure, commonly used in hPSC-CM purification protocols, induces an independent program of cardiac maturation, but when combined with PPARd activation equally results in a metabolic switch to FAO. In summary, we identify multiple axes of metabolic modifications of hPSC-CMs including a role for PPARdelta signaling in inducing the metabolic switch to FAO in hPSC-CMs. Our findings provide new opportunities to generate and use metabolically mature hPSC-CMs including for disease modeling and regenerative therapy.