Dual inhibition of MAPK and PI3K/AKT pathways enhances maturation of human iPSC-derived cardiomyocytes
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ABSTRACT: Human induced pluripotent stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes (hiPSC-CMs) provide great opportunities for mechanistic dissection of human cardiac pathophysiology; however, hiPSC-CMs remain immature relative to the adult heart. To identify novel signaling pathways driving the maturation process during heart development, we analyzed published transcriptional and epigenetic datasets from hiPSC-CMs, prenatal and postnatal human hearts. These analyses revealed that several components of the MAPK and PI3K-AKT pathways are downregulated in the postnatal heart. Here, we show that dual inhibition of these pathways for only 5 days significantly enhances the maturation of day-30 hiPSC-CMs in many domains: hypertrophy, multinucleation, metabolism, t-tubule density, calcium handling, and electrophysiology, many equivalent to day-60 hiPSC-CMs. These data indicate that the MAPK/PI3K/AKT pathways are involved in cardiomyocyte maturation and provide proof-of-concept for the manipulation of key signaling pathways for optimal hiPSC-CM maturation, a critical aspect of faithful in vitro modeling of cardiac pathologies and subsequent drug discovery.
ORGANISM(S): Homo sapiens
PROVIDER: GSE187308 | GEO | 2022/08/04
REPOSITORIES: GEO
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