Influence of continuous electrical stimulation on development of human cardiomyocytes from induced pluripotent stem cells

Abstract

Regeneration of cardiac tissue remains an ideal approach to restore cardiac function after myocardial infarction. The ability of human induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) to differentiate into bona fide cardiomyocytes also provides a platform for cardiac disease modeling, drug discovery and pharmacological safety testing of new drugs. One of the major limitations for the use of cardiomyocytes derived from iPSCs is that they resemble fetal cardiomyocytes and are immature compared to adult cardiomyocytes. Considering that the developing heart grows in an electric field, we investigated whether electrical stimulation can promote maturation of cardiomyocytes derived from human iPSCs. Two-dime..