Multi-chamber cardioids unravel human heart development and cardiac defects

Abstract

The number one cause of human fetal death are defects in heart development. Because the human embryonic heart is inaccessible, and the impacts of mutations, drugs, and environmental factors on the specialized functions of different heart compartments are not captured by in vitro models, determining the underlying causes is difficult. Here, we established a human cardioid platform that recapitulates the development of all major embryonic heart compartments, including right and left ventricles, atria, outflow tract, and atrioventricular canal. By leveraging both 2D and 3D differentiation, we efficiently generated progenitor subsets with distinct first, anterior, and posterior second heart field identities. This advance enabled the reproducible generation of cardioids with compartment-specific in vivo-like gene expression profiles, morphologies, and functions. We used this platform to unravel the ontogeny of signal and contraction propagation between interacting heart chambers and dissect how genetic and environmental factors cause region-specific defects in the developing human heart. O_FIG O_LINKSMALLFIG WIDTH=200 HEIGHT=155 SRC="FIGDIR/small/499699v1_ufig1.gif" ALT="Figure 1"> View larger version (44K): org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@c9c629org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@f0d521org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@1389411org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@181098a_HPS_FORMAT_FIGEXP M_FIG C_FIG HIGHLIGHTS- Mesoderm induction and patterning signals specify aSHF, pSHF, and FHF progenitors - Cardiac progenitors sort, co-develop and functionally connect in multi-chamber cardioids - Multi-chamber cardioids coordinate contraction propagation and share a lumen - Multi-chamber platform dissects genetic (ISL1, TBX5, FOXF1) and teratogenic defects