Generating ring-shaped engineered heart tissues from ventricular and atrial human pluripotent stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes

The functions of the heart are achieved through coordination of different cardiac cell subtypes (e.g., ventricular, atrial, conduction-tissue cardiomyocytes). Human pluripotent stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes (hPSC-CMs) offer unique opportunities for cardiac research. Traditional studies using these cells focused on single-cells and utilized mixed cell populations. Our goal was to develop clinically-relevant engineered heart tissues (EHTs) comprised of chamber-specific hPSC-CMs. Here we show that such EHTs can be generated by directing hPSCs to differentiate into ventricular or atrial cardiomyocytes, and then embedding these cardiomyocytes in a collagen-hydrogel to create chamber-specific, ring-shaped, EHTs. The chamber-specific EHTs display distinct atrial versus ventricular phenotypes as revealed by immunostaining, gene-expression, optical assessment of action-potentials and conduction velocity, pharmacology, and mechanical force measurements. We also establish an atrial EHT-based arrhythmia model and confirm its usefulness by applying relevant pharmacological interventions. Thus, our chamber-specific EHT models can be used for cardiac disease modeling, pathophysiological studies and drug testing.