Human Stem Cells Help Model Heart Attack

A model of myocardial infarction (heart attack) using cardiomyocytes differentiated from human induced pluripotent stem cells has been developed by researchers at Okayama University Graduate School of Medicine, Dentistry and Pharmaceutical Sciences.

The journal Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications published the study, with Ken Takahashi, Ph.D., as corresponding author, and Wei Heng, MSc., a graduate student in the Naruse Lab, as first author.

‘The heart attack (myocardial infarction) model will contribute to the development of preventive/therapeutic medicine more effective to human even without sacrificing animals.’

To date, laboratory animals such as mouse have been used to model diseases including myocardial infarction. However, there have been concerns about difference in characteristics of cardiomyocytes e.g. heart rate and action of drugs, based on the difference of gene expression between laboratory animals and human.

Using this model, researchers can evaluate the extent of myocardial tissue damage by microscope morphologically, and by measuring injury-marker proteins and analyzing contractility and its synchroneity from recorded movie quantitatively. Further analysis revealed that gene expression of interleukin-8, an inflammation marker known to increase in acute myocardial infarction, increased in this model.

Source: Eurekalert