[HTML][HTML] Chemical-defined and albumin-free generation of human atrial and ventricular myocytes from human pluripotent stem cells

F Pei, J Jiang, S Bai, H Cao, L Tian, Y Zhao, C Yang… - Stem cell …, 2017 - Elsevier
F Pei, J Jiang, S Bai, H Cao, L Tian, Y Zhao, C Yang, H Dong, Y Ma
Stem cell research, 2017Elsevier
Most existing culture media for cardiac differentiation of human pluripotent stem cells
(hPSCs) contain significant amounts of albumin. For clinical transplantation applications of
hPSC-derived cardiomyocytes (hPSC-CMs), culturing cells in an albumin containing
environment raises the concern of pathogen contamination and immunogenicity to the
recipient patients. In addition, batch-to-batch variation of albumin may cause the inconsistent
of hPSC cardiac differentiation. Here, we demonstrated that antioxidants l-ascorbic acid …
Abstract
Most existing culture media for cardiac differentiation of human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs) contain significant amounts of albumin. For clinical transplantation applications of hPSC-derived cardiomyocytes (hPSC-CMs), culturing cells in an albumin containing environment raises the concern of pathogen contamination and immunogenicity to the recipient patients. In addition, batch-to-batch variation of albumin may cause the inconsistent of hPSC cardiac differentiation. Here, we demonstrated that antioxidants l-ascorbic acid, trolox, N-acetyl-l-cysteine (NAC) and sodium pyruvate could functionally substitute albumin in the culture medium, and formulated an albumin-free, chemical-defined medium (S12 medium). We showed that S12 medium could support efficient hPSC cardiac differentiation with significantly improved reproducibility, and maintained long-term culture of hPSC-CMs. Furthermore, under chemical-defined and albumin-free conditions, human-induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) were established, and differentiated into highly homogenous atrial and ventricular myocytes in a scalable fashion with normal electrophysiological properties. Finally, we characterized the activity of three typical cardiac ion channels of those cells, and demonstrated that hPSC-derived ventricular cardiomyocytes (hPSC-vCMs) were suitable for drug cardiac safety evaluation. In summary, this simplified, chemical-defined and albumin-free culture medium supports efficient generation and maintaining of hPSC-CMs and facilitates both research and clinical applications of these cells.
Elsevier