Human induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC)-based model of cardiac diseases has been proved to be useful and valuable for identifying new therapeutics. However, the use of human iPSC-based model of cardiac diseases for drug screen is hampered by the high-cost and complexity of methods used for reprogramming, in vitro differentiation, and phenotyping. To address the limitations, we first optimized a protocol for reprogramming of human fibroblasts and keratinocytes into pluripotency using single lipofection and the episomal vectors in a 24-well plate format. This method allowed us to generate multiple lines of integration-free and feeder-free iPSCs from seven patients with cardiac diseases and three controls. Second, we differentiated human iPSCs derived from Timothy syndrome patients into cardiomyocytes using a monolayer differentiation method. We found that Timothy syndrome cardiomyocytes showed slower, irregular contractions and abnormal calcium handling compared to controls, which were consistent with previous reports using a retroviral method for reprogramming and using an embryoid body-based method for cardiac differentiation. Third, we developed an efficient approach for recording action potentials and calcium transients simultaneously in control and patient cardiomyocytes using genetically encoded fluorescent indicators, ArcLight and R-GECO1. The dual optical recordings enabled us to observe prolonged action potentials and abnormal calcium handling in Timothy syndrome cardiomyocytes. We confirmed that roscovitine rescued the phenotypes in Timothy syndrome cardiomyocytes and these findings were consistent with previous studies using conventional electrophysiological recordings and calcium imaging with dyes. The approaches using our optimized methods and dual optical recordings will improve iPSC applicability for disease modeling to test potential therapeutics. With those new approaches in hand, next we plan to use the iPSC-based model of Timothy syndrome to investigate novel molecules involved in the pathogenesis of Timothy syndrome and to screen and identify new therapeutic compounds for Timothy syndrome patients.
Electrophysiologic Characterization of Calcium Handling in Human Induced Pluripotent Stem Cell-Derived Atrial Cardiomyocytes
