Murine embryonic stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes

Parrag IC, Zandstra PW, Woodhouse KA. Fiber alignment and cocnltnre with fibroblasts improves the differentiated phenotype of murine embryonic stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes for cardiac tissne engineering. Biotechnol Bioeng March 2012 109(3) 813-22. 

As a prerequisite for fine motor control, skeletal muscle fibers are electrically isolated from one another, and, accordingly, do not express either connexin-43 (the major gap junction protein) or N-cadherin (the major adherens protein in cardiac intercalated discs). Asynchronous islands of intramyocardial skeletal muscle can result in lethal arrhythmias in mice [21]. Although cell types such as fetal cardiomyocytes [22] and cardiomyocytes derived from murine or human embryonic stem cells [23] are capable of electromechanical coupling, their clinical use has unfortunately been hampered by technical, ethical, moral, social and legal hurdles. 

Surprisingly, the use of cocultures with degradable PUs in cardiac TE systems has been limited when vascular grafts are excluded from the research. A study by Parrag et al. used murine-derived embryonic stem cells (mESCs) and mouse embryonic fibroblasts (MEEs) to TE cardiomyocyte-derived tissues. mESCs are pluripotent cells that require proper cues to differentiate into specific cell types. In the study, Parrag et al. showed that both the coculture of mESCs with MEEs and the use of aligned microfi-brous PU scaffolds provided the cues necessary to induce mESC differentiation to a functioning cardiomyocyte phenotype [104]. 

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