A Mount Sinai-led team has developed a reproducible and scalable method to advance maturation of human pluripotent stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes (hPSC-CMs) — cells that support heart muscle contraction, generated in the lab from human stem cell lines — which researchers say will improve approaches for disease modeling, regenerative therapies, and drug testing. A study reporting this new protocol was published in the April 7 print edition of the journal Cell Stem Cell.
Mount Sinai researchers investigated multiple metabolic modifications in hPSC-CMs. The research team also identified the role of the protein known as peroxisome proliferator activated receptor delta (PPARd) in inducing what is referred to as the metabolic switch in the lab-generated heart muscle cells. This metabolic switch is a critical part of the maturation process of the heart.
“This work will create exciting…
