A subscription to JoVE is required to view this content. Sign in or start your free trial.
Here we present a protocol for training a cell population using electrical and mechanical stimuli emulating cardiac physiology. This electromechanical stimulation enhances the cardiomyogenic potential of the treated cells and is a promising strategy for further cell therapy, disease modeling, and drug screening.
Cardiovascular diseases are the leading cause of death in developed countries. Consequently, the demand for effective cardiac cell therapies has motivated researchers in the stem cell and bioengineering fields to develop in vitro high-fidelity human myocardium for both basic research and clinical applications. However, the immature phenotype of cardiac cells is a limitation on obtaining tissues that functionally mimic the adult myocardium, which is mainly characterized by mechanical and electrical signals. Thus, the purpose of this protocol is to prepare and mature the target cell population through electromechanical stimulation, recapitulating physiological parameters. Cardiac tissue engineering is evolving toward more biological approaches, and strategies based on biophysical stimuli, thus, are gaining momentum. The device developed for this purpose is unique and allows individual or simultaneous electrical and mechanical stimulation, carefully characterized and validated. In addition, although the methodology has been optimized for this stimulator and a specific cell population, it can easily be adapted to other devices and cell lines. The results here offer evidence of the increased cardiac commitment of the cell population after electromechanical stimulation. Electromechanically stimulated cells show an increased expression of main cardiac markers, including early, structural, and calcium-regulating genes. This cell conditioning could be useful for further regenerative cell therapy, disease modeling, and high-throughput drug screening.
Heart function is based on the coupling of electrical excitation and mechanical contraction. Briefly, cardiomyocyte intercellular junctions permit electrical signal propagation to produce almost synchronous contractions of the heart that pump blood systemically and through the pulmonary system. Cardiac cells, thus, undergo both electrical and mechanical forces that regulate gene expression and cellular function. Accordingly, many groups have attempted to develop culture platforms that mimic the cardiac physiological environment to understand the role of mechanical and electrical stimulation on cardiac development, function, and maturation. In vitro electrical....
This study uses human cardiac ATDPCs from patient samples. Their use has been approved by the local ethics committee, and all patients gave informed consent. The study protocol conforms to the principles outlined in the Declaration of Helsinki.
1. Preparations
Figure 2 represents the general schema followed for the cell stimulation. Briefly, cells were seeded on the PDMS construct and subjected to electromechanical stimulation, with a media change performed twice a week. Nonstimulated cells were used as a control for the electromechanical conditioning. Additionally, we added an extra control to the experiment, and subcutaneous ATDPCs were used as a control for cardiac ATDPCs. Subcutaneous ATDPCs are obtained from s.......
Electromechanical stimulation appears to be a safe alternative for preparing cells for a hostile cardiac environment and enhancing their cardiac commitment. Here, a protocol described for cardiac progenitor cells increased the expression of main cardiac markers and was reported to be beneficial for their next implantation on infarcted murine myocardium30. In general, electromechanically stimulated cardiac ATDPCs increased the expression of genes related to early, structural, and calcium regulation.......
The authors want to thank the members of the ICREC Research Program (IGTP, Badalona) and the Electronic and Biomedical Instrumentation Group (UPC, Barcelona), especially Prof. J. Rosell-Ferrer. In addition, the authors acknowledge STEM CELLS Translational Medicine journal and AlphaMed Press for permitting the adaptation of previously published figures (Llucià-Valldeperas, et al.30). The development of this prototype and the design of the protocol were supported by Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia (SAF 2008-05144), Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (SAF 2014-59892), the European Commission 7th Framework Programme (....
Name | Company | Catalog Number | Comments |
Stimulator | |||
nickel plated neodymium magnets | Supermagnete | Q-10-10-05-N | |
nickel-plated neodymium magnets | Supermagnete | Q-06-04-02-HN | |
polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) SYLGAR 184 Silicone Elastomer Kit | Dow Corning Corp | 184 | |
ruled diffraction grating (1250 grooves/mm) | Newport | 05RG150-1250-2 | |
Motor controller | Faulhaber | MCLM-3006-S | |
Labview | National Instruments | ||
Cell culture | |||
phosphate-buffered saline (PBS) | Gibco | 70013-065 | |
0.05% trypsin-EDTA | Gibco | 25300-120 | |
35 mm cell culture dish | BD Falcon | 45353001 | |
fetal bovine serum (FBS) | Gibco | 10270-106 | |
L-Glutamine 200 mM, 100x | Gibco | 25030-024 | |
Penicilina/Streptomicine, 10.000 U/mL | Gibco | 15140-122 | |
Minimum essential medium eagle (alfa-MEM) | Sigma | M4526-24x500ML | |
Protein & RNA analyses | |||
protease inhibitor cocktail | Sigma | P8340 | |
QIAzol Lysis Reagent | Qiagen | 79306 | |
AllPrep RNA/Protein Kit | Qiagen | 50980404 | |
Rneasy mini kit | Qiagen | 74104 | |
iTaq Universal Probes One-Step Kit | Bio-Rad Laboratories | 172-5140 | |
Random hexamers | Qiagen | 79236 | |
TaqMan PreAmp MasterMix 2X | Applied Biosystems | 4391128 | |
TaqMan Universal PCR MasterMix | Applied Biosystems | 4324018 | |
Immunostaining | |||
10% formalin | Sigma | HT-501128-4L | |
horse serum | Sigma | H1138 | |
Triton X-100 | Sigma | X100-500ML | |
Bovine Serum Albumina (BSA) | Sigma | A7906-100G | |
PARAFILM | Sigma | P6543 | |
4',6-diamidino-2-phenylindole (DAPI) | Sigma | D9542 | |
Phalloidin Alexa 568 | Invitrogen | A12380 | |
sodium azide | Sigma | S8032-100g | |
Hoechst 33342 | Sigma | 14533 | |
Connexin-43 rabbit primary antibody | Sigma | C6219 lot#061M4823 | |
sarcomeric α-actinin mouse primary antibody | Sigma | A7811 lot#080M4864 | |
GATA-4 goat primary antibody | R&D | AF2606 VAZ0515101 | |
MEF2 rabbit primary antibody | Santa Cruz | sc-313 lot#E0611 | |
SERCA2 goat primary antibody | Santa Cruz | sc-8095 lot#D2709 | |
Cy3 secondary antibody | Jackson ImmunoResearch | 711-165-152 | |
Cy3 secondary antibody | Jackson ImmunoResearch | 715-165-151 | |
Cy3 secondary antibody | Jackson ImmunoResearch | 712-165-150 | |
Cy2 secondary antibody | Jackson ImmunoResearch | 715-225-150 | |
Cy2 secondary antibody | Jackson ImmunoResearch | 711-225-152 | |
Cy2 secondary antibody | Jackson ImmunoResearch | 705-225-147 |
This article has been published
Video Coming Soon
ABOUT JoVE
Copyright © 2024 MyJoVE Corporation. All rights reserved