Engineering Human Heart Tissues with Polyploid Cardiomyocytes

Human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) represent a potentially unlimited source of functional
cardiomyocytes (hiPSC-CMs) for use in disease modeling, drug development, and regenerative therapies. In
particular, use of hiPSC-CM-derived microtissues in microphysiological (“organ-on-chip”) systems holds
promise as the future mainstay of pharmaceutical research and a platform to improve our understanding of
genotype-phenotype relationships in mono- and polygenic diseases of the human heart. However, a major
obstacle to wide-spread use of hiPSC-CMs in these applications are their immature properties including small
cell size, lack of T-tubules, predominantly glycolytic metabolism, and reduced functional output, to name a few.
One important aspect of postnatal CM maturation - increased ploidy - has been largely understudied. Namely,
in vitro cultured hiPSC-CMs are predominantly mononuclear and diploid, while the adult human myocardium
consists of ~90% polyploid CMs. We thus propose to investigate potential roles of polyploidy in hiPSC-CM
maturation, and specifically, to explore if engineered polyploidy of hiPSC-CMs can endow human engineered
cardiac tissues (hECTs) with increased functionality and maturity compared to control tissues made from
primarily diploid CMs. Our preliminary results show that stable hiPSC-CM polyploidy induced genetically or
pharmacologically results in increased size and mitochondrial density of hiPSC-CMs, as well as contractile
strength and conduction velocity of hECTs. In the proposed studies, we will further examine roles of CM
polyploidization in structural, functional, and metabolic maturation of hECTs and investigate polyploidy-induced
transcriptomic and epigenetic changes in hiPSC-CMs. Furthermore, using a novel bioreactor with capacity to
dynamically control applied mechanical preload and afterload to hECTs, we will investigate the relationships
between developmentally-mimetic regimes of mechanical loading and CM polyploidy. We will also determine
if polyploidy sensitizes hiPSC-CMs to hypertrophic stimuli in vitro and protects hECTs from oxidative stress in
vitro and ischemic damage in vivo. Finally, we will apply CRISPR/Cas9 screening methodologies to identify
genetic inducers of terminal maturation in already polyploidy hiPSC-CMs and will perform additional screens
in both diploid and polyploid hiPSC-CMs to identify candidate mitogens that can promote CM cell cycle activity.
By successfully completing these studies, we expect to improve our understanding of physiological roles of
polyploidy in cardiac development and to establish the foundation for the future translational uses of engineered
cardiac tissues in disease modeling, drug development, and cardiac therapies.

Grant Number: 5R01HL164013-04
NIH Institute/Center: NIH
Principal Investigator: Nenad Bursac