The use of induced pluripotent stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes to study cardiac arrhythmias and cardiomyopathies
Scope of the method
- Human health
- Basic Research
- Translational - Applied Research
- In vitro - Ex vivo
- Human derived cells / tissues / organs
Description
- induced pluripotent stem cells
- Disease modeling
- Cardiomyocyte
- drug screening
- CRISPR/Cas
- cardiac arrhythmia
- cardiomyopathy
- Brugada syndrome
Cardiomyocytes derived from induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC-CMs) offer an attractive platform for cardiovascular research, including disease modeling, drug toxicity testing and development of regenerative therapies. Patient-specific iPSC-CMs are very useful to study disease pathogenesis and have a huge potential for evaluation of disease prognosis and development of personalized treatment. In our research group we study inherited cardiac arrhythmias (currently with a focus on Brugada syndrome) and cardiomyopathies. We create iPSC-CM models, either patient-derived or using CRISPR/Cas, to evaluate the functional effect of specific genetic variants, assist the search for modifier genes and novel therapeutic targets, and screen for novel drug compounds.
- - Biosafety cabinets ;
- - Nucleofector ;
- - Patch-clamp equipment ;
- - Multi-electrode array (MEA) ;
- - Next-generation sequencing (NGS) instruments.
- Still in development
- Internally validated
Pros, cons & Future potential
Human model mimicking the native cardiomyocyte environment, patient-based disease model recapitulating full genomic background.
Relative immaturity of the cells, variability of the phenotype of the final iPSC-CM model
Improved protocols for more standardized differentiation and maturation of the cardiomyocytes.
iPSC-CMs can as well be used for drug cardiotoxicity screening and regenerative therapies after further improvements and validation.
References, associated documents and other information
Contact person
Maaike AlaertsOrganisations
University of Antwerp (UAntwerpen)Center of Medical Genetics
Belgium