An In Vitro Model System For Cardiac Cell Therapy

• Main Author: Dengler, Jana
• Other Authors: Radisic, Milica
• Language: en_ca
• Published: 2009
• Subjects: Cardiac Tissue Engineering; Embryonic Stem Cells; Cell Therapy; In Vitro Model; 0541
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/1807/17504

Embryonic stem cells (ESC) constitute a promising source of cells for cardiac transplantation strategies. However, complexities associated with in vivo studies have made it difficult to develop a thorough understanding of cell integration. We have engineered an in vitro system that recapitulates the native cardiac environment using 300μm thick collagen scaffolds seeded with neonatal cardiomyocytes (CM) and electrical field stimulation. The injection of undifferentiated ESC served as a baseline to assess the validity of studying cell transplantation in this model. Yfp-ESC survived and proliferated over several days in model tissue. ESC were not observed to significantly differentiate into the cardiac lineage, and did not integrate with the cardiac cell population. While the injection of ESC improved cardiac cell number, tissue functional properties were hindered. The methods developed herein can be readily adapted to study ESC derived progenitor and differentiated cells, to elucidate the optimal cell state for ESC-mediated cell therapy.