Transcriptomic analysis of different human cardiac cell types produced in vitro from human pluripotent stem cells or derived from patients.

The epicardium, an epithelium covering the heart, is essential for cardiac development. During embryogenesis, the epicardium provides instructive signals for the growth and maturation of cardiomyocytes and for coronary angiogenesis. We generated an in vitro model of human embryonic epicardium derived from human pluripotent stem cells (hPSC-epi). These cells were able to differentiate into cardiac fibroblasts (cf) and smooth muscle cells (smc) in vitro (hPSC-epi-cf and hPSC-epi-smc respectively). Furthermore, we showed that they improved maturation of hPSC-derived cardiomyocytes (hPSC-cardio) in vitro while neural crest cells derived from hPSC (hPSC-NC) could not. Furthermore, they improved survival of hPSC-cardio and stimulated angiogenesis when injected in a rat model of myocardium infarction. We performed mRNA sequencing of the hPSC-epi, hPSC-epi-cf, hPSC-smc and hPSC-NC in order to identify the secreted molecules specifically produced by the hPSC-epi and/or its derivatives in comparison with the hPSC-NC. Vascular smooth muscle cells have different embryonic origins and different properties depending on their location in the body. The coronary smooth muscle cells come from the epicardium while the aortic ones come from the mesoderm or the neural crest. We performed mRNA sequencing of human coronary artery smc and human aortic smc to identify a specific signature of the coronary smc. We also compared the genes expressed in the hPSC-epi-smc and the smc derived from hPSC-derived lateral plate mesoderm. Overall design: For hPSC-derived samples the three replicates are coming from three different in vitro differentiations from H9. For the human primary cells, the triplicates are technical replicates (three different wells from the same culture at the same passage)

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Bargehr J, Ong LP, Colzani M, Davaapil H, Hofsteen P, Bhandari S, Gambardella L, Le Novère N, Iyer D, Sampaziotis F, Weinberger F, Bertero A, Leonard A, Bernard WG, Martinson A, Figg N, Regnier M, Bennett MR, Murry CE, Sinha S