Microphysiological stem cell models of the human heart

Ulgu Arslan; Alessia Moruzzi; Joanna Nowacka; Christine L Mummery; Dominik Eckardt; Peter Loskill; Valeria V Orlova

doi:10.1016/j.mtbio.2022.100259

Microphysiological stem cell models of the human heart

Mater Today Bio. 2022 Apr 14:14:100259. doi: 10.1016/j.mtbio.2022.100259. eCollection 2022 Mar.

Authors

Ulgu Arslan¹, Alessia Moruzzi^{2

3}, Joanna Nowacka⁴, Christine L Mummery¹, Dominik Eckardt⁴, Peter Loskill^{2

3

5}, Valeria V Orlova¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Anatomy and Embryology, Leiden University Medical Centre, Leiden, the Netherlands.
² NMI Natural and Medical Sciences Institute at the University of Tübingen, Reutlingen, Germany.
³ Institute for Biomedical Engineering, Eberhard Karls University Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany.
⁴ Miltenyi Biotec B.V. & Co. KG, Bergisch Gladbach, Germany.
⁵ 3R-Center for in Vitro Models and Alternatives to Animal Testing, Tübingen, Germany.

Abstract

Models of heart disease and drug responses are increasingly based on human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs) since their ability to capture human heart (dys-)function is often better than animal models. Simple monolayer cultures of hPSC-derived cardiomyocytes, however, have shortcomings. Some of these can be overcome using more complex, multi cell-type models in 3D. Here we review modalities that address this, describe efforts to tailor readouts and sensors for monitoring tissue- and cell physiology (exogenously and in situ) and discuss perspectives for implementation in industry and academia.

Keywords: Cardiac microtissue; Cardiomyocyte maturation; Engineered heart tissue; Functional readout; Heart-on-chip; Human induced pluripotent stem cells; Multicellular cell diseases and drug efficacy platform; Structural readout.

Publication types

Review