Cardiac Micro-tissues

Technology Innovation

The human heart is a complex organ providing highly regulated processes of moving blood through the body. The adult human ventricle is comprised of cardiomyocytes, endothelial cells, fibroblasts and other supporting cell types. Though cardiomyocytes make up 75% of the total volume of human ventricle, it only constitutes 50% of the total cell number. Recent publications show that tri-cellular co-culture microtissues of cardiomyocytes, endothelial cells and cardiac fibroblasts that are all derived from human iPSC enhance the maturation and functional activity of cells compared to 2D cardiomyocytes and thus more closely mimics actual heart physiology.

The data presented here highlight the utility and biological relevance of using iPSC-derived cell types in 3D microtissues as a promising model for measuring compound effects on human cardiac tissues in high throughput format.