Recent advances in the generation of cardiomyocytes (CMs) from human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs), in conjunction with the promising outcomes from preclinical and clinical studies, have raised new hopes for cardiac cell therapy. We report the development of a scalable, robust, and integrated differentiation platform for large-scale production of hPSC-CM aggregates in a stirred suspension bioreactor as a single-unit operation. Precise modulation of the differentiation process by small molecule activation of WNT signaling, followed by inactivation of transforming growth factor-b and WNT signaling and activation of sonic hedgehog signaling in hPSCs as size-controlled aggregates led to the generation of approximately 100% beating CM spheroids containing virtually pure (∼90%) CMs in 10 days. Moreover, the developed differentiation strategy was universal, as demonstrated by testing multiple hPSC lines (5 human embryonic stem cell and 4 human inducible PSC lines) without cell sorting or selection. The produced hPSC-CMs successfully expressed canonical lineage-specific markers and showed high functionality, as demonstrated by microelectrode array and electrophysiology tests. This robust and universal platform could become a valuable tool for the mass production of functional hPSC-CMs as a prerequisite for realizing their promising potential for therapeutic and industrial applications, including drug discovery and toxicity assays. STEM CELLS

No abstract

Summary Circulating neutrophil phenotype and function are altered during neutrophilia associated with acute inflammatory states, however, the contribution of bone marrow neutrophil release to these changes has been difficult to quantify in humans. Accelerated release of neutrophils, with potentially distinct attributes, from the bone marrow and their dilution within the circulating pool may produce these apparent changes. Unfortunately selective analysis of these newly emergent neutrophils is difficult given their morphologic similarity to those already in the circulation and the coincident effect of soluble inflammatory mediators on circulating neutrophil phenotype and function. Using whole blood flow cytometry and cardiac surgery as an inflammatory stimulus, we demonstrate the emergence of a unique subpopulation of circulating neutrophils characterised as CD10−/CD16low, indicative of active bone marrow neutrophil release peri‐operatively. CD10−/CD16low neutrophils emerge at the same operative stages as band forms and a left shift, yet represent over 40% of circulating neutrophils postoperatively, and generate a greater stimulus‐induced [Ca2+]i flux than their CD10+ counterparts. We conclude that CD10−/CD16low neutrophils represent a significant proportion of the circulating pool after cardiac surgery and that bone marrow release, a major contributor to neutrophilia, influences the phenotype and functional activity of circulating neutrophils following this acute inflammatory stimulus.

Acute inflammatory stimuli rapidly mobilize neutrophils from the bone marrow by shortening postmitotic maturation time and releasing younger neutrophils; however, the kinetics of this change in maturation time remains unknown. We propose a kinetic model that examines the rate of change in neutrophil average age at exit from the bone marrow during active mobilization to quantify this response and use this model to examine the temporal profile of late neutrophil phenotypic maturation. Total and CD10−/CD16lowcirculating neutrophils were quantified in cardiac surgery patients during extracorporeal circulation (ECC). Net growth in the circulating neutrophil pool occurred during the procedural (0.04 ± 0.02 × 109·l−1·min−1), warming (0.14 ± 0.02 × 109·l−1·min−1), and weaning (0.12 ± 0.06 × 109·l−1·min−1) phases of ECC. When applied to our differential equation mathematical model, these results predict that neutrophil average age at exit from the bone marrow decreased continually during ECC, resulting in average neutrophil release 8.44 ± 2.20 h earlier during the weaning phase than at the beginning of ECC sampling. Modeling of concurrent changes in CD10−/CD16lowneutrophil numbers indicates that CD10 expression is directly related to neutrophil mean age and predicts that the proportion of mobilizable postmitotic neutrophils that are CD10+increases from 64 to 81% during these sampled 8.4 h of maturation.