Comparing the signaling and transcriptome profiling landscapes of human iPSC-derived and primary rat neonatal cardiomyocytes

Abstract

The inaccessibility of human cardiomyocytes significantly hindered years of cardiovascular research efforts. Post-mortem tissue or biopsies from diseased patients, which remain scarcely available, rendered it possible to study end-stage heart disease yet the inclusion of healthy human cardiac materials for basic science research was beyond reach. To overcome these limitations, non-human cell sources were used as proxies to study heart function and associated diseases. Rodent models became increasingly acceptable surrogates to model the human heart either in vivo or through in vitro cultures. More recently, due to concerns regarding animal to human translation, including cross-species differences, the use of human inducible stem cell derived cardiomyocytes presented a renewed opportunity. We think it necessary to conduct a comparative study, assessing cellular signalling through cardiac G protein-coupled receptors and bulk transcriptomics of traditional rat neonatal cardiomyocytes and human iPSC-CMs. Genetically-encoded biosensors were used to interrogate nuclear protein kinase A (PKA) and extracellular signal-regulated kinase 1/ 2 (ERK1/2) in rat and human-derived cardiomyocyte populations. To increase data granularity, a single-cell analytical approach was conducted for an in-depth examination of existing differences between both in vitro cardiomyocyte models. Using automated high content microscopy, our analyses of nuclear PKA and ERK1/2 signaling revealed distinct response clusters in rat and human CMs. In line with this, bulk RNA-seq demonstrated key differences regarding the expression patterns of GPCRs, G proteins and effectors. Overall, our study demonstrates that human stem cell derived models of the cardiomyocyte do provide significant advantages and should be taken advantage of.