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Perlecan (HSPG2) signalling promotes structural, contractile, and metabolic development during the maturation stage of hPSC-CM differentiation

ABSTRACT: 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.

ORGANISM(S): Homo sapiens

PROVIDER: GSE229975 | GEO | 2024/01/23

REPOSITORIES: GEO

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Project description:Despite efforts to mature human pluripotent stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes (hPSC-CMs) for disease modeling and high throughput screening, cells remain immature and may not reflect adult biology. Recent advancements utilize electro-mechanical and paracrine stimulation to functionally mature cardiomyocytes, but the resulting engineered constructs continue to lack a microenvironment conducive to electrical signal propagation and maturity. Conductive polymers are attractive candidates to facilitate electrical communication between gaps in sparse hPSC-CM clusters or between hPSC-CMs to repair conduction defects. To create a conductive polymer platform for improved electrical signal propagation between hPSC-CMs and achieve electrical maturity, we electrospun poly(3,4-ethylendioxythiophene):polystyrene sulfonate (PEDOT:PSS) blended with 8% (w/v) poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA). Matrix fiber structure remained stable over 4 weeks in buffer, stiffness remains near cardiac stiffness in vivo, and electrical conductivity scaled with PEDOT:PSS concentration. When fibroblasts were added to fibers, cells had higher initial attachment to PEDOT:PSS compared to PVA-only scaffolds, and after 5 days, over 90% of fibroblasts remained viable on PEDOT:PSS scaffolds compared to PVA-only scaffolds. Electrically excitable hPSC-CMs cultured on conductive substrates exhibited an upregulation of cardiac and muscle-related genes as opposed to non-conductive substrates. These cells further displayed increased desmoplakin (DP) localization on conductive scaffolds, indicating an improvement in the mechanical stability of our hPSC-CMs. Sarcomere organization also scaled with increasing PEDOT:PSS concentration, even in sub-monolayer cell densities, suggesting that improved organization of the contractile machinery in these cells was due to the electrical condition of the matrix. Calcium handling indicated higher calcium flux with a shorter time to peak, further suggesting improved electrical maturity, even when sub-confluent. Taken together, these data suggest that PEDOT:PSS/PVA scaffolds are stable, of a stiffness relevant to cardiomyocytes, and supportive of electrical coupling even in the absence of a monolayer, which may improve cardiac disease modeling and drug development.

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Perlecan (HSPG2) signalling promotes structural, contractile, and metabolic development during the maturation stage of hPSC-CM differentiation

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