Slicing and Culturing Pig Hearts under Physiological Conditions

Summary

This protocol describes how to slice and culture heart tissue under physiological conditions for 6 days. This culture system could be used as a platform for testing the efficacy of novel heart failure therapeutics as well as reliable testing of acute cardiotoxicity in a 3D heart model.

Abstract

Many novel drugs fail in clinical studies due to cardiotoxic side effects as the currently available in vitro assays and in vivo animal models poorly predict human cardiac liabilities, posing a multi-billion-dollar burden on the pharmaceutical industry. Hence, there is a worldwide unmet medical need for better approaches to identify drug cardiotoxicity before undertaking costly and time consuming 'first in man' trials. Currently, only immature cardiac cells (human induced pluripotent stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes [hiPSC-CMs]) are used to test therapeutic efficiency and drug toxicity as they are the only human cardiac cells that can be cultured for prolonged periods required to test drug efficacy and toxicity. However, a single cell type cannot replicate the phenotype of the complex 3D heart tissue which is formed of multiple cell types. Importantly, the effect of drugs needs to be tested on adult cardiomyocytes, which have different characteristics and toxicity responses compared to immature hiPSC-CMs. Culturing human heart slices is a promising model of intact human myocardium. This technology provides access to a complete multicellular system that mimics the human heart tissue and reflects the physiological or pathological conditions of the human myocardium. Recently, through optimization of the culture media components and the culture conditions to include continuous electrical stimulation at 1.2 Hz and intermittent oxygenation of the culture medium, we developed a new culture system setup that preserves viability and functionality of human and pig heart slices for 6 days in culture. In the current protocol, we are detailing the method for slicing and culturing pig heart as an example. The same protocol is used to culture slices from human, dog, sheep, or cat hearts. This culture system has the potential to become a powerful predictive human in situ model for acute cardiotoxicity testing that closes the gap between preclinical and clinical testing results.

Introduction

Drug induced cardiotoxicity is a major cause of market withdrawal¹. In the last decade of the 20^th century, eight non-cardiovascular drugs were withdrawn from the market as they resulted in sudden death due to ventricular arrhythmias². In addition, several anti-cancer therapies (while in many cases effective) can lead to several cardiotoxic effects including cardiomyopathy and arrhythmias. For example, both traditional (e.g., anthracyclines and radiation) and targeted (e.g., trastuzumab) breast cancer therapies can result in cardiovascular complications in a subset of patients³. A close....

Protocol

All animal procedures were in accordance with the institutional guidelines of the University of Louisville and approved by the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee.

1. Preparation for Slicing (One Day Before Slicing)

1. Preparation of the vibrating microtome
   1. Place the ceramic blade into its holder by following these steps: after carefully unwrapping the blade, place the sharp edge first into the slot of the blade tool. Then, fit the blade into the h.......

Discussion

Here we describe the detailed video protocol for our recently published method for simplified medium throughput (processes up to 48 slices/device) method that enables culture of pig heart slices for a period sufficiently long to test acute cardiotoxicity¹³. The proposed conditions mimic the environment of the heart, including frequency of electrical stimulation, nutrient availability, and intermittent oxygenation. We attribute the prolonged viability of heart slices in our biomimetic stimulated cu.......

Materials

Name	Company	Catalog Number	Comments
1000ml, 0.22µm, Vacuum Filter/Storage Systems	VWR	28199-812
2,3-Butanedione monoxime (BDM)	Fisher	AC150375000
500ml, 0.22µm, Vacuum Filter/Storage Systems	VWR	28199-788
6-well C-Dish Cover (electrical-stimulation-plate-cover)	Ion Optix	CLD6WFC
6-well plates	Fisher	08-772-1B
Agarose	Bioline USA	BIO-41025
Antibiotic-Antimycotic	Thermo	15-240-062
C-Pace EM (cell-culture-electrical-stimulator)	Ion Optix	CEP100
Calcium Chloride (CaCl2)	Fisher	C79-500
Ceramic Blades for Vibrating Microtome	Campden Instruments	7550-1-C
Cooley Chest Retractor	Millennium Surgical	63-G5623
D-Glucose	Fisher	D16-1
Disposable Scalpel #20	Biologyproducts.com	DS20X
Falcon Cell Strainers, Sterile, Corning	VWR	21008-952
Fetal Bovine Serum	Thermo	A3160502
Graefe Forceps	Fisher	NC9475675
Heparin sodium salt	Sigma-Aldrich	H3149-50KU
HEPES	Fisher	BP310-1
Histoacryl BLUE Tissue glue	Amazon		https://www.amazon.com/HISTOACRYL-FLEXIBLE-1051260P-Aesculap-Adhesive/dp/B074WB5185/
Iris Spring scissors	Fisher	NC9019530
Iris Straight Scissors	Fisher	731210
Isoflurane, USP	Piramal	NDC 66794-017-25
ITS Liquid Media Supplement	Sigma-Aldrich	I3146-5ML
Ketamine HCl (500 mg/10 mL)	West-Ward	NDC 0143-9508
Magnesium Chloride (MgCl2)	Fisher	M33-500
Mayo SuperCut Surgical Scissors	AROSurgical Instruments Corporation	AROSuperCut™ 07.164.17
Medium 199, Earle's Salts	Thermo	11-150-059
Oxygen regulator	Praxair
Oxygen tanks -	Praxair
Plastic Pasteur pipettes	Fisher	13-711-48
Potassium Chloride (KCl)	Fisher	AC193780010
Printer Timing Belt	Amazon		https://www.amazon.com/Uxcell-a14081200ux0042-PRINTER-Precision-Timing/dp/B00R1J3KDC/
Razor rectangle blades	Fisher	12-640
Recombinant Human FGF basic	R&D Systems	233-FB-025/CF
Recombinant Human VEGF	R&D Systems	293-VE-010/CF
Retractable scalpels	Fisher	22-079-716
Sodium Bicarbonate (NaHCO3)	Fisher	AC217125000
Sodium Chloride (NaCl)	Fisher	AC327300010
Vibrating Microtome	Campden Instruments	7000 SMZ-2
Xylazine HCl (100 mg/mL)	Heartland Veterinary Supply	NADA 139-236