Optimizing the Differentiation of Cardiomyocytes from Human Induced Pluripotent-Derived Stem Cells.

Cardiovascular disease is a worldwide health issue that affects millions of lives every year, and thus, researchers are in need of high-throughput model systems with which to investigate mechanisms of disease and to develop and test potential therapies. The use of human-derived induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) differentiated into cardiomyocytes aims to address this need. While cardiac differentiation protocols have been established previously in iPSCs, optimization of cardiac differentiation remains crucial to obtaining high quality cardiomyocytes for future experimental analyses. Important factors to consider include cell density and rate of proliferation, temporal regulation of media changes throughout the differentiation process, and the concentration of the chemicals utilized. In this chapter, we present a detailed protocol to outline the process of differentiating cardiomyocytes from human iPSCs via modulation of Wnt signaling, characterization of cardiomyocytes by immunofluorescence, as well as guidelines for troubleshooting and optimizing these techniques.