Dissecting human fetal cardiac repair using cardioids

Human cardiac injury responses are governed by dynamic interacting processes that are difficult to resolve. Unlike adults, fetal mammalian hearts regenerate through coordinated remodeling and proliferation supported by a pro-regenerative immune environment, extracellular matrix (ECM), and immature cardiomyocytes, including trabecular subtypes. Here, we establish a modular human cardioid injury platform to dissect these interactions. We show that anti-inflammatory macrophages selectively migrate to the injury, clear debris, and promote ECM remodeling, whereas inflammatory macrophages suppress cardiomyocyte proliferation. Synergistic FGF2-NRG1 signaling induces trabecular identity and morphology in a hyaluronan-dependent manner, conferring enhanced injury repair, characterized by cytoskeletal remodeling and cardiomyocyte proliferation mediated by YAP and WNT signaling. Exogenous YAP, but not WNT, is sufficient to promote repair in non-trabecular cardioids. These findings uncover coordinated immune-ECM-cardiomyocyte interactions governing human fetal regenerative competence and mechanistically resolve remodeling and proliferative components of cardiac repair. O_FIG O_LINKSMALLFIG WIDTH=200 HEIGHT=162 SRC="FIGDIR/small/735236v1_ufig1.gif" ALT="Figure 1"> View larger version (34K): org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@1e647a2org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@16911f8org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@11ad14eorg.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@1a35d94_HPS_FORMAT_FIGEXP M_FIG C_FIG