Modeling cardiovascular diseases with patient-specific human pluripotent stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes

The generation of cardiomyocytes from human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) provides a source of cells that accurately recapitulate the human cardiac pathophysiology. The application of these cells allows for modeling of cardiovascular diseases, providing a novel understanding of human disease mechanisms and assessment of therapies. Here, we describe a stepwise protocol developed in our laboratory for the generation of hiPSCs from patients with a specific disease phenotype, long-term hiPSC culture and cryopreservation, differentiation of hiPSCs to cardiomyocytes, and assessment of disease phenotypes. Our protocol combines a number of innovative tools that include a codon-optimized mini intronic plasmid (CoMiP), chemically defined culture conditions to achieve high efficiencies of reprogramming and differentiation, and calcium imaging for assessment of cardiomyocyte phenotypes. Thus, this protocol provides a complete guide to use a patient cohort on a testable cardiomyocyte platform for pharmacological drug assessment.