construction-defined-human-engineered-cardiac-tissues-to-study

Construction of Defined Human Engineered Cardiac Tissues to Study Mechanisms of Cardiac Cell Therapy

Human cardiac tissue engineering can fundamentally impact therapeutic discovery through the development of new species-specific screening systems that ...

Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai

Background- Variation in LDL-cholesterol (LDL-C) among individuals is a complex genetic trait involving multiple genes and gene-environment interactions.

Common SNPs in HMGCR in micronesians and whites associated with LDL-cholesterol levels affect alternative splicing of exon13.

Axonal transport mediated by microtubule-dependent motors is vital for neuronal function and viability. Selective sets of cargoes, including macromolecules and organelles, are transported long range along axons to specific destinations. Despite intensive studies focusing on the motor machinery, the regulatory mechanisms that control motor-cargo assembly are not well understood. Here we show that UNC-51/ATG1 kinase regulates the interaction between synaptic vesicles and motor complexes during transport in Drosophila. UNC-51 binds UNC-76, a kinesin heavy chain (KHC) adaptor protein. Loss of unc-51 or unc-76 leads to severe axonal transport defects in which synaptic vesicles are segregated from the motor complexes and accumulate along axons. Genetic studies show that unc-51 and unc-76 functionally interact in vivo to regulate axonal transport. UNC-51 phosphorylates UNC-76 on Ser(143), and the phosphorylated UNC-76 binds Synaptotagmin-1, a synaptic vesicle protein, suggesting that motor-cargo interactions are regulated in a phosphorylation-dependent manner. In addition, defective axonal transport in unc-76 mutants is rescued by a phospho-mimetic UNC-76, but not a phospho-defective UNC-76, demonstrating the essential role of UNC-76 Ser(143) phosphorylation in axonal transport. Thus, our data provide insight into axonal transport regulation that depends on the phosphorylation of adaptor proteins.

UNC-51/ATG1 kinase regulates axonal transport by mediating motor-cargo assembly.

The development of induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) technology has led to many advances in the areas of directed cell differentiation and characterization. New methods for generating iPSC-derived cardiomyocytes provide an invaluable resource for the study of certain cardiovascular disorders. This review highlights the current technology in this field, its application thus far to the study of genetic disorders of the RAS/MAPK pathway and long-QT syndrome (LQTS), and future directions for the field.

Induced pluripotent stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes as models for genetic cardiovascular disorders.

The use of human stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes to study atrial biology and disease has been restricted by the lack of a reliable method for stem cell-derived atrial cell labeling and purification. The goal of this study was to generate an atrial-specific reporter construct to identify and purify human stem cell-derived atrial-like cardiomyocytes. We have created a bacterial artificial chromosome (BAC) reporter construct in which fluorescence is driven by expression of the atrial-specific gene sarcolipin (SLN). When purified using flow cytometry, cells with high fluorescence specifically express atrial genes and display functional calcium handling and electrophysiological properties consistent with atrial cardiomyocytes. Our data indicate that SLN can be used as a marker to successfully monitor and isolate hiPSC-derived atrial-like cardiomyocytes. These purified cells may find many applications, including in the study of atrial-specific pathologies and chamber-specific lineage development.

Identification and purification of human induced pluripotent stem cell-derived atrial-like cardiomyocytes based on sarcolipin expression.

Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) is a leading cause of sudden cardiac death that often goes undetected in the general population. HCM is also prevalent in patients with cardio-facio-cutaneous syndrome (CFCS), which is a genetic disorder characterized by aberrant signaling in the RAS/MAPK signaling cascade. Understanding the mechanisms of HCM development in such RASopathies may lead to novel therapeutic strategies, but relevant experimental models of the human condition are lacking. Therefore, the objective of this study was to develop the first 3D human engineered cardiac tissue (hECT) model of HCM. The hECTs were created using human cardiomyocytes obtained by directed differentiation of induced pluripotent stem cells derived from a patient with CFCS due to an activating BRAF mutation. The mutant myocytes were directly conjugated at a 3:1 ratio with a stromal cell population to create a tissue of defined composition. Compared to healthy patient control hECTs, BRAF-hECTs displayed a hypertrophic phenotype by culture day 6, with significantly increased tissue size, twitch force, and atrial natriuretic peptide (ANP) gene expression. Twitch characteristics reflected increased contraction and relaxation rates and shorter twitch duration in BRAF-hECTs, which also had a significantly higher maximum capture rate and lower excitation threshold during electrical pacing, consistent with a more arrhythmogenic substrate. By culture day 11, twitch force was no longer different between BRAF and wild-type hECTs, revealing a temporal aspect of disease modeling with tissue engineering. Principal component analysis identified diastolic force as a key factor that changed from day 6 to day 11, supported by a higher passive stiffness in day 11 BRAF-hECTs. In summary, human engineered cardiac tissues created from BRAF mutant cells recapitulated, for the first time, key aspects of the HCM phenotype, offering a new in vitro model for studying intrinsic mechanisms and screening new therapeutic approaches for this lethal form of heart disease.

Human Engineered Cardiac Tissues Created Using Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells Reveal Functional Characteristics of BRAF-Mediated Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy.

Article	Year
Common SNPs in HMGCR in micronesians and whites associated with LDL-cholesterol levels affect alternative splicing of exon13. Arteriosclerosis, thrombosis, and vascular biology\| PubMed ID: 18802019	2008
UNC-51/ATG1 kinase regulates axonal transport by mediating motor-cargo assembly. Genes & development\| PubMed ID: 19056884	2008
Induced pluripotent stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes as models for genetic cardiovascular disorders. Current opinion in cardiology\| PubMed ID: 21451408	2011
Identification and purification of human induced pluripotent stem cell-derived atrial-like cardiomyocytes based on sarcolipin expression. PloS one\| PubMed ID: 25010565	2014
Human Engineered Cardiac Tissues Created Using Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells Reveal Functional Characteristics of BRAF-Mediated Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy. PloS one\| PubMed ID: 26784941	2016

Rebecca Josowitz

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