Jianhua Zhang, PhD, Senior Scientist Credit: Clint Thayer |
The research, published recently in eLife, investigates the role of extracellular matrix (ECM) proteins in the generation of heart cells derived from human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs). The ECM fills the space between cells, providing structural support and regulating formation of tissues and organs. With a better understanding of ECM and its impact on heart development, researchers will be able to more effectively develop heart muscle cells, called cardiomyocytes, that could be useful for cardiac repair, regeneration and cell therapy.
“How the ECM impacts the generation of hPSC-cardiomyocytes has been largely overlooked,” says Jianhua Zhang, a senior scientist at the Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine Center. “The better we understand how the soluble factors as well as the ECM proteins work in the cell culture and differentiation, the closer we get to our goals.”
Researchers like Zhang have been looking to improve the differentiation of hPSCs into cardiomyocytes, or the ability to take hPSCs, which can self-renew indefinitely in culture while maintaining the ability to become almost any cell type in the human body and turn them into heart muscle cells. To investigate the role of the ECM in promoting this cardiac differentiation of hPSCs, Zhang tested a variety of proteins to see how they impacted stem cell growth and differentiation — specifically, ECM proteins including laminin-111, laminin-521, fibronectin and collagen.