Paper in European Heart Journal

Murine and human pluripotent stem cell-derived cardiac bodies form contractile myocardial tissue in vitro, European Heart Journal 2013

For the first time, the team of Ina Gruh and Ulrich Martin was able to demonstrate that contracting heart muscle tissue (bioartificial cardiac tissue, BCT) can be generated from three dimensional cardiomyocyte aggregates, so-called cardiac bodies (CBs), that are based on murine and human pluripotent stem cells. The LEBAO team optimized the processes and investigated the role of fibroblasts, ascorbic acid and mechanical stimuli on tissue formation, maturation and functionality in depth. Together with colleagues from the Institute of Functional and Applied Anatomy of the MHH, the Georg-August University in Göttingen as well as the Leibniz University Hannover the researchers, for the first time, generated BCT with contractile forces comparable with native myocardium. This success is based on a novel concept of tissue formation from non-dissociated cardiac cell aggregates and represents a major step towards clinical applicability of stem cell-based heart tissue for myocardial repair.

Kensah, G.*, Roa Lara, A.*, Dahlmann, J., Zweigerdt, R., Schwanke, K., Hegermann, J., Skvorc, D., Gawol, A., Azizian, A., Wagner, S., Maier, L. S., Krause, A., Drager, G., Ochs, M., Haverich, A., Gruh, I.#, and Martin, U.#. 2013. Murine and human pluripotent stem cell-derived cardiac bodies form contractile myocardial tissue in vitro. European heart journal 34, no. 15:1134. * #Authors contributed equally.