Bioengineering Strategies to Create 3D Cardiac Constructs from Human Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells

Abstract

Human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) can be used to generate various cell types in the human body. Hence, hiPSC-derived cardiomyocytes (hiPSC-CMs) represent a significant cell source for disease modeling, drug testing, and regenerative medicine. The immaturity of hiPSC-CMs in two-dimensional (2D) culture limit their applications. Cardiac tissue engineering provides a new promise for both basic and clinical research. Advanced bioengineered cardiac in vitro models can create contractile structures that serve as exquisite in vitro heart microtissues for drug testing and disease modeling, thereby promoting the identification of better treatments for cardiovascular disorders. In this review, we will introduce recent advances of bioengineering technologies to produce in vitro cardiac tissues derived from hiPSCs.

3D-bioprinting of patient-derived cardiac tissue models for studying congenital heart disease

“…In addition to growing longer, the increasing trend in organization index indicates the sarcomeres also become more organized during maturation in the 3D environment with laminin-521. Other groups have also observed an increase in sarcomere organization of iPSC-CMs cultured in ECM ( 35 ).…”

iPSC-Derived Cardiomyocytes in Inherited Cardiac Arrhythmias: Pathomechanistic Discovery and Drug Development

“…Microactuators can give either electrical or mechanical stimuli to the cells/tissue, while the sensors record electrophysiological signals or contraction force [61]. Heart-on-a-chip has been used for drug toxicity assessments and maturation was shown to be improved through electrical and mechanical stimulation [62]. Although some cardiac disease models such as ischaemia and fibrosis have been investigated using the heart-on-a-chip method [63,64], to date there are no publications on its use for inherited cardiac arrhythmias.…”

Editorial: Transcription factors and arrhythmogenesis

“…These mutations are known to lead to familial arrhythmogenic cardiomyopathy with a high penetrance; however, there is a phenotypic variability in terms of disease onset, severity, and rate of progression. Recent evidence has shown that induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) represent a reliable strategy to create disease-in-a-dish models (Varzideh et al, 2022). Thus, the authors generated seven patient-specific iPSC lines with different LMNA mutations and successfully differentiated them in cardiomyocytes and cardiac fibroblasts.…”