title: Subtype-specific differentiation of cardiac pacemaker cell clusters from human induced pluripotent stem cells
creator: Schweizer, Patrick A.
creator: Darche, Fabrice F.
creator: Ullrich, Nina D.
creator: Geschwill, Pascal
creator: Greber, Boris
creator: Rivinius, Rasmus
creator: Seyler, Claudia
creator: Müller-Decker, Karin
creator: Draguhn, Andreas
creator: Utikal, Jochen
creator: Koenen, Michael
creator: Katus, Hugo A.
creator: Thomas, Dierk
subject: 610
subject: 610 Medical sciences Medicine
description: Background: Human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSC) harbor the potential to differentiate into diverse cardiac cell types. Previous experimental efforts were primarily directed at the generation of hiPSC-derived cells with ventricular cardiomyocyte characteristics. Aiming at a straightforward approach for pacemaker cell modeling and replacement, we sought to selectively differentiate cells with nodal-type properties.    Methods: hiPSC were differentiated into spontaneously beating clusters by co-culturing with visceral endoderm-like cells in a serum-free medium. Subsequent culturing in a specified fetal bovine serum (FBS)-enriched cell medium produced a pacemaker-type phenotype that was studied in detail using quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR), immunocytochemistry, and patch-clamp electrophysiology. Further investigations comprised pharmacological stimulations and co-culturing with neonatal cardiomyocytes.    Results: hiPSC co-cultured in a serum-free medium with the visceral endoderm-like cell line END-2 produced spontaneously beating clusters after 10–12 days of culture. The pacemaker-specific genes HCN4, TBX3, and TBX18 were abundantly expressed at this early developmental stage, while levels of sarcomeric gene products remained low. We observed that working-type cardiomyogenic differentiation can be suppressed by transfer of early clusters into a FBS-enriched cell medium immediately after beating onset. After 6 weeks under these conditions, sinoatrial node (SAN) hallmark genes remained at high levels, while working-type myocardial transcripts (NKX2.5, TBX5) were low. Clusters were characterized by regular activity and robust beating rates (70–90 beats/min) and were triggered by spontaneous Ca2+ transients recapitulating calcium clock properties of genuine pacemaker cells. They were responsive to adrenergic/cholinergic stimulation and able to pace neonatal rat ventricular myocytes in co-culture experiments. Action potential (AP) measurements of cells individualized from clusters exhibited nodal-type (63.4%) and atrial-type (36.6%) AP morphologies, while ventricular AP configurations were not observed.    Conclusion: We provide a novel culture media-based, transgene-free approach for targeted generation of hiPSC-derived pacemaker-type cells that grow in clusters and offer the potential for disease modeling, drug testing, and individualized cell-based replacement therapy of the SAN.
publisher: BioMed Central
date: 2017
type: Article
type: info:eu-repo/semantics/article
type: NonPeerReviewed
format: application/pdf
identifier: https://archiv.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/volltextserverhttps://archiv.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/volltextserver/23646/1/13287_2017_Article_681.pdf
identifier: DOI:
identifier: urn:nbn:de:bsz:16-heidok-236463
identifier:   Schweizer, Patrick A. ; Darche, Fabrice F. ; Ullrich, Nina D. ; Geschwill, Pascal ; Greber, Boris ; Rivinius, Rasmus ; Seyler, Claudia ; Müller-Decker, Karin ; Draguhn, Andreas ; Utikal, Jochen ; Koenen, Michael ; Katus, Hugo A. ; Thomas, Dierk  (2017) Subtype-specific differentiation of cardiac pacemaker cell clusters from human induced pluripotent stem cells.  Stem Cell Research & Therapy, 8 (229).  pp. 1-15.  ISSN 1757-6512     
relation: https://archiv.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/volltextserver/23646/
rights: info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
rights: Please see front page of the work (Sorry, Dublin Core plugin does not recognise license id)
language: eng