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Rosales RM, Mountris KA, Oliván-Viguera A, Pérez-Zabalza M, Cedillo-Servin G, Iglesias-García O, Hrynevich A, Castilho M, Malda J, Prósper F, Doblaré M, Mazo MM, Pueyo E. Experimentally-guided in silico design of engineered heart tissues to improve cardiac electrical function after myocardial infarction. Comput Biol Med 2024; 171:108044. [PMID: 38335818 DOI: 10.1016/j.compbiomed.2024.108044] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/14/2023] [Revised: 12/23/2023] [Accepted: 01/26/2024] [Indexed: 02/12/2024]
Abstract
Engineered heart tissues (EHTs) built from human induced pluripotent stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes (hiPSC-CMs) showed promising results for cardiac function restoration following myocardial infarction. Nevertheless, human iPSC-CMs have longer action potential and lower cell-to-cell coupling than adult-like CMs. These immature electrophysiological properties favor arrhythmias due to the generation of electrophysiological gradients when hiPSC-CMs are injected in the cardiac tissue. Culturing hiPSC-CMs on three-dimensional (3D) scaffolds can promote their maturation and influence their alignment. However, it is still uncertain how on-scaffold culturing influences the overall electrophysiology of the in vitro and implanted EHTs, as it requires expensive and time consuming experimentation. Here, we computationally investigated the impact of the scaffold design on the EHT electrical depolarization and repolarization before and after engraftment on infarcted tissue. We first acquired and processed electrical recordings from in vitro EHTs, which we used to calibrate the modeling and simulation of in silico EHTs to replicate experimental outcomes. Next, we built in silico EHT models for a range of scaffold pore sizes, shapes (square, rectangular, auxetic, hexagonal) and thicknesses. In this setup, we found that scaffolds made of small (0.2 mm2), elongated (30° half-angle) hexagons led to faster EHT activation and better mimicked the cardiac anisotropy. The scaffold thickness had a marginal role on the not engrafted EHT electrophysiology. Moreover, EHT engraftment on infarcted tissue showed that the EHT conductivity should be at least 5% of that in healthy tissue for bidirectional EHT-myocardium electrical propagation. For conductivities above such threshold, the scaffold made of small elongated hexagons led to the lowest activation time (AT) in the coupled EHT-myocardium. If the EHT conductivity was further increased and the hiPSC-CMs were uniformly oriented parallel to the epicardial cells, the total AT and the repolarization time gradient decreased substantially, thus minimizing the likelihood for arrhythmias after EHT transplantation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ricardo M Rosales
- Instituto de Investigación Sanitaria de Aragón (IIS Aragón), Zaragoza, Aragón, Spain; CIBER-BBN, ISCIII, Madrid, Spain; Aragón Institute of Engineering Research (I3A), University of Zaragoza, Zaragoza, Aragón, Spain.
| | | | - Aida Oliván-Viguera
- Instituto de Investigación Sanitaria de Aragón (IIS Aragón), Zaragoza, Aragón, Spain; CIBER-BBN, ISCIII, Madrid, Spain; Aragón Institute of Engineering Research (I3A), University of Zaragoza, Zaragoza, Aragón, Spain.
| | - María Pérez-Zabalza
- Instituto de Investigación Sanitaria de Aragón (IIS Aragón), Zaragoza, Aragón, Spain; CIBER-BBN, ISCIII, Madrid, Spain; Aragón Institute of Engineering Research (I3A), University of Zaragoza, Zaragoza, Aragón, Spain; Defense University Centre (CUD), Zaragoza, Spain.
| | - Gerardo Cedillo-Servin
- Regenerative Medicine Center, Utrecht, The Netherlands; Department of Orthopedics, University Medical Center, Utrecht, The Netherlands.
| | - Olalla Iglesias-García
- Regenerative Medicine Program, CIMA Universidad de Navarra, Pamplona, Spain; Instituto de Investigación Sanitaria de Navarra (IdiSNA), Spain.
| | - Andrei Hrynevich
- Regenerative Medicine Center, Utrecht, The Netherlands; Department of Orthopedics, University Medical Center, Utrecht, The Netherlands.
| | - Miguel Castilho
- Department of Orthopedics, University Medical Center, Utrecht, The Netherlands; Department of Biomedical Engineering, Eindhoven University of Technology, Eindhoven, The Netherlands.
| | - Jos Malda
- Regenerative Medicine Center, Utrecht, The Netherlands; Department of Orthopedics, University Medical Center, Utrecht, The Netherlands; Department of Equine Sciences, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands.
| | - Felipe Prósper
- Regenerative Medicine Program, CIMA Universidad de Navarra, Pamplona, Spain; Instituto de Investigación Sanitaria de Navarra (IdiSNA), Spain; Hematology and Cell Therapy, Clínica Universidad de Navarra, Pamplona, Spain; CIBER de Cáncer (CIBERONC, team CB16/12/00489), Pamplona, Spain.
| | - Manuel Doblaré
- Instituto de Investigación Sanitaria de Aragón (IIS Aragón), Zaragoza, Aragón, Spain; CIBER-BBN, ISCIII, Madrid, Spain; Aragón Institute of Engineering Research (I3A), University of Zaragoza, Zaragoza, Aragón, Spain.
| | - Manuel M Mazo
- Regenerative Medicine Program, CIMA Universidad de Navarra, Pamplona, Spain; Instituto de Investigación Sanitaria de Navarra (IdiSNA), Spain; Hematology and Cell Therapy, Clínica Universidad de Navarra, Pamplona, Spain.
| | - Esther Pueyo
- Instituto de Investigación Sanitaria de Aragón (IIS Aragón), Zaragoza, Aragón, Spain; CIBER-BBN, ISCIII, Madrid, Spain; Aragón Institute of Engineering Research (I3A), University of Zaragoza, Zaragoza, Aragón, Spain.
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Al-attar R, Jargstorf J, Romagnuolo R, Jouni M, Alibhai FJ, Lampe PD, Solan JL, Laflamme MA. Casein Kinase 1 Phosphomimetic Mutations Negatively Impact Connexin-43 Gap Junctions in Human Pluripotent Stem Cell-Derived Cardiomyocytes. Biomolecules 2024; 14:61. [PMID: 38254663 PMCID: PMC10813327 DOI: 10.3390/biom14010061] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/10/2023] [Revised: 12/14/2023] [Accepted: 12/25/2023] [Indexed: 01/24/2024] Open
Abstract
The transplantation of human pluripotent stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes (hPSC-CMs) has shown promise in preclinical models of myocardial infarction, but graft myocardium exhibits incomplete host-graft electromechanical integration and a propensity for pro-arrhythmic behavior. Perhaps contributing to this situation, hPSC-CM grafts show low expression of connexin 43 (Cx43), the major gap junction (GJ) protein, in ventricular myocardia. We hypothesized that Cx43 expression and function could be rescued by engineering Cx43 in hPSC-CMs with a series of phosphatase-resistant mutations at three casein kinase 1 phosphorylation sites (Cx43-S3E) that have been previously reported to stabilize Cx43 GJs and reduce arrhythmias in transgenic mice. However, contrary to our predictions, transgenic Cx43-S3E hPSC-CMs exhibited reduced Cx43 expression relative to wild-type cells, both at baseline and following ischemic challenge. Cx43-S3E hPSC-CMs showed correspondingly slower conduction velocities, increased automaticity, and differential expression of other connexin isoforms and various genes involved in cardiac excitation-contraction coupling. Cx43-S3E hPSC-CMs also had phosphorylation marks associated with Cx43 GJ internalization, a finding that may account for their impaired GJ localization. Taken collectively, our data indicate that the Cx43-S3E mutation behaves differently in hPSC-CMs than in adult mouse ventricular myocytes and that multiple biological factors likely need to be addressed synchronously to ensure proper Cx43 expression, localization, and function.
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Affiliation(s)
- Rasha Al-attar
- McEwen Stem Cell Institute, University Health Network, Toronto, ON M5G 1L7, Canada; (R.A.-a.); (J.J.); (R.R.); (M.J.); (F.J.A.)
| | - Joseph Jargstorf
- McEwen Stem Cell Institute, University Health Network, Toronto, ON M5G 1L7, Canada; (R.A.-a.); (J.J.); (R.R.); (M.J.); (F.J.A.)
| | - Rocco Romagnuolo
- McEwen Stem Cell Institute, University Health Network, Toronto, ON M5G 1L7, Canada; (R.A.-a.); (J.J.); (R.R.); (M.J.); (F.J.A.)
| | - Mariam Jouni
- McEwen Stem Cell Institute, University Health Network, Toronto, ON M5G 1L7, Canada; (R.A.-a.); (J.J.); (R.R.); (M.J.); (F.J.A.)
| | - Faisal J. Alibhai
- McEwen Stem Cell Institute, University Health Network, Toronto, ON M5G 1L7, Canada; (R.A.-a.); (J.J.); (R.R.); (M.J.); (F.J.A.)
| | - Paul D. Lampe
- Translational Research Program, Public Health Sciences and Human Biology Divisions, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle, WA 98109, USA; (P.D.L.); (J.L.S.)
| | - Joell L. Solan
- Translational Research Program, Public Health Sciences and Human Biology Divisions, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle, WA 98109, USA; (P.D.L.); (J.L.S.)
| | - Michael A. Laflamme
- McEwen Stem Cell Institute, University Health Network, Toronto, ON M5G 1L7, Canada; (R.A.-a.); (J.J.); (R.R.); (M.J.); (F.J.A.)
- Peter Munk Cardiac Centre, University Health Network, Toronto, ON M5G 1L7, Canada
- Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathobiology, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON M5G 1L7, Canada
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