Differentiation and use of cardiomyocytes derived from human pluripotent stem cells

Abstract

A long-standing need in the field of -regenerative medicine for improved, humanized cell models for disease has led to a focus on human pluripotent stem cell derivatives. Functional cardiomyocytes, with therapeutic and drug screening potential, have recently been differentiated from human embryonic and induced stem cells. These cells show electrophysiological, contractile, and calcium handling profile similarities with their in vivo counterparts with relatively immature phenotype resembling foetal or diseased cardiomyocytes. Depicting cardiogenic pathways has helped to enhance cardio-differentiation protocols, including increased yield, scaling up, subtype preference and maturation in order to match the strict conditions of therapeutic application. However, severe limitations still hamper their use in clinic. On the other hand, human pluripotent stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes seem excellent candidate for drug testing in high content/throughput screening and for disease modelling. The proximity of these cells to the adult/diseased cardiac phenotype, their scalability and the possibility to convert somatic cells isolated from patients into cardiac cells, has permitted the investigation of heart congenital diseases and makes possible future personalized medicine.