Generation and Analysis of Pluripotent Stem Cell-Derived Cardiomyocytes and Endothelial Cells for High Content Screening Purposes

Human-induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) and their differentiated derivatives became a new, promising source for in vitro screening techniques. Cell lines derived from healthy individuals can be applied for drug safety testing, while patient-derived cells provide a platform to model diseases in vitro and can be used as a tool for personalized medicine including specific drug efficacy testing and identification of new pharmacological targets as well as for tailoring pharmacological therapies. Efficient differentiation protocols yielding cardiomyocytes or endothelial cells derived from iPSCs have been developed recently. Phenotypic characterization and gene expression profiling of these derivatives can reveal clues for developmental and pathological questions. Moreover, functional analysis and cell-based assays using automated fluorescence imaging platform and high content analysis characterize cell type-specific profiles of hiPSC-derived cardiomyocytes (hiPSC-CM) and endothelial cells (hiPSC-EC) at the cellular and subcellular levels. This can be utilized in a platform which can provide multiple endpoint profiles of candidate compounds.