Aims: Cardiomyocytes (CMs) generated from human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) are increasingly used in disease modelling and drug evaluation. However, they are typically a heterogeneous mix of ventricular-, atrial-, and nodal-like cells based on action potentials (APs) and gene expression. This heterogeneity and the paucity of methods for high-throughput functional phenotyping hinder the full exploitation of their potential. We aimed at developing a method for rapid, sequential, and subtype-specific phenotyping of hiPSC-CMs with respect to AP morphology and single-cell arrhythmias.
Methods and results: We used cardiac lineage-specific promoters to drive the expression of a voltage-sensitive fluorescent protein (VSFP-CR) in hiPSC-CMs, enabling subtype-specific optical AP recordings. In a patient-specific hiPSC model of long-QT syndrome type 1, AP prolongation and frequent early afterdepolarizations were evident in mutant ventricular- and atrial like, but not in nodal-like hiPSC-CMs compared with their isogenic controls, consistent with the selective expression of the disease-causing gene. Furthermore, we demonstrate the feasibility of sequentially probing a cell over several days to investigate genetic rescue of the disease phenotype and to discern CM subtype-specific drug effects.
Conclusion: By combining a genetically encoded membrane voltage sensor with promoters that drive its expression in the major subtypes of hiPSC-CMs, we developed a convenient system for disease modelling and drug evaluation in the relevant cell type, which has the potential to advance the emerging utility of hiPSCs in cardiovascular medicine.