Wnt Activation and Reduced Cell-Cell Contact Synergistically Induce Massive Expansion of Functional Human iPSC-Derived Cardiomyocytes.

Wnt Activation and Reduced Cell-Cell Contact Synergistically Induce Massive Expansion of Functional Human iPSC-Derived Cardiomyocytes. Cell Stem Cell. 2020 Jul 02;27(1):50-63.e5 Authors: Buikema JW, Lee S, Goodyer WR, Maas RG, Chirikian O, Li G, Miao Y, Paige SL, Lee D, Wu H, Paik DT, Rhee S, Tian L, Galdos FX, Puluca N, Beyersdorf B, Hu J, Beck A, Venkamatran S, Swami S, Wijnker P, Schuldt M, Dorsch LM, van Mil A, Red-Horse K, Wu JY, Geisen C, Hesse M, Serpooshan V, Jovinge S, Fleischmann BK, Doevendans PA, van der Velden J, Garcia KC, Wu JC, Sluijter JPG, Wu SM Abstract Modulating signaling pathways including Wnt and Hippo can induce cardiomyocyte proliferation in vivo. Applying these signaling modulators to human induced pluripotent stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes (hiPSC-CMs) in vitro can expand CMs modestly (<5-fold). Here, we demonstrate massive expansion of hiPSC-CMs in vitro (i.e., 100- to 250-fold) by glycogen synthase kinase-3β (GSK-3β) inhibition using CHIR99021 and concurrent removal of cell-cell contact. We show that GSK-3β inhibition suppresses CM maturation, while contact removal prevents CMs from cell cycle exit. Remarkably, contact removal enabled 10 to 25 times greater expansion beyond GSK-3β inhibition alone. Mechanistically, persistent CM proliferation required both LEF/TCF activity and AKT phosphorylation but was independent from yes-associated protein (YAP) signaling. Engineered heart tissues from expa...
Source: Cell Stem Cell - Category: Stem Cells Authors: Tags: Cell Stem Cell Source Type: research