Frontiers in Physiology (Nov 2022)

Calcium handling maturation and adaptation to increased substrate stiffness in human iPSC-derived cardiomyocytes: The impact of full-length dystrophin deficiency

  • Josè Manuel Pioner,
  • Lorenzo Santini,
  • Chiara Palandri,
  • Marianna Langione,
  • Bruno Grandinetti,
  • Silvia Querceto,
  • Daniele Martella,
  • Daniele Martella,
  • Costanza Mazzantini,
  • Beatrice Scellini,
  • Lucrezia Giammarino,
  • Flavia Lupi,
  • Francesco Mazzarotto,
  • Francesco Mazzarotto,
  • Aoife Gowran,
  • Davide Rovina,
  • Rosaria Santoro,
  • Giulio Pompilio,
  • Giulio Pompilio,
  • Chiara Tesi,
  • Camilla Parmeggiani,
  • Camilla Parmeggiani,
  • Michael Regnier,
  • Elisabetta Cerbai,
  • David L. Mack,
  • Corrado Poggesi,
  • Cecilia Ferrantini,
  • Raffaele Coppini

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3389/fphys.2022.1030920
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 13

Abstract

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Cardiomyocytes differentiated from human induced Pluripotent Stem Cells (hiPSC- CMs) are a unique source for modelling inherited cardiomyopathies. In particular, the possibility of observing maturation processes in a simple culture dish opens novel perspectives in the study of early-disease defects caused by genetic mutations before the onset of clinical manifestations. For instance, calcium handling abnormalities are considered as a leading cause of cardiomyocyte dysfunction in several genetic-based dilated cardiomyopathies, including rare types such as Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD)-associated cardiomyopathy. To better define the maturation of calcium handling we simultaneously measured action potential and calcium transients (Ca-Ts) using fluorescent indicators at specific time points. We combined micropatterned substrates with long-term cultures to improve maturation of hiPSC-CMs (60, 75 or 90 days post-differentiation). Control-(hiPSC)-CMs displayed increased maturation over time (90 vs 60 days), with longer action potential duration (APD), increased Ca-T amplitude, faster Ca-T rise (time to peak) and Ca-T decay (RT50). The progressively increased contribution of the SR to Ca release (estimated by post-rest potentiation or Caffeine-induced Ca-Ts) appeared as the main determinant of the progressive rise of Ca-T amplitude during maturation. As an example of severe cardiomyopathy with early onset, we compared hiPSC-CMs generated from a DMD patient (DMD-ΔExon50) and a CRISPR-Cas9 genome edited cell line isogenic to the healthy control with deletion of a G base at position 263 of the DMD gene (c.263delG-CMs). In DMD-hiPSC-CMs, changes of Ca-Ts during maturation were less pronounced: indeed, DMD cells at 90 days showed reduced Ca-T amplitude and faster Ca-T rise and RT50, as compared with control hiPSC-CMs. Caffeine-Ca-T was reduced in amplitude and had a slower time course, suggesting lower SR calcium content and NCX function in DMD vs control cells. Nonetheless, the inotropic and lusitropic responses to forskolin were preserved. CRISPR-induced c.263delG-CM line recapitulated the same developmental calcium handling alterations observed in DMD-CMs. We then tested the effects of micropatterned substrates with higher stiffness. In control hiPSC-CMs, higher stiffness leads to higher amplitude of Ca-T with faster decay kinetics. In hiPSC-CMs lacking full-length dystrophin, however, stiffer substrates did not modify Ca-Ts but only led to higher SR Ca content. These findings highlighted the inability of dystrophin-deficient cardiomyocytes to adjust their calcium homeostasis in response to increases of extracellular matrix stiffness, which suggests a mechanism occurring during the physiological and pathological development (i.e. fibrosis).

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