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Chalcone‐Supported Cardiac Mesoderm Induction in Human Pluripotent Stem Cells for Heart Muscle Engineering
Author(s) -
Raad Farah S.,
Khan Taukeer A.,
Esser Tilman U.,
Hudson James E.,
Seth Bhakti Irene,
Fujita Buntaro,
Gandamala Ravi,
Tietze Lutz F.,
Zimmermann Wolfram-Hubertus
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
chemmedchem
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.817
H-Index - 100
eISSN - 1860-7187
pISSN - 1860-7179
DOI - 10.1002/cmdc.202100222
Subject(s) - induced pluripotent stem cell , mesoderm , chalcone , myocyte , microbiology and biotechnology , lateral plate mesoderm , biology , chemistry , embryonic stem cell , biochemistry , gene , stereochemistry
Human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs) hold great promise for applications in cell therapy and drug screening in the cardiovascular field. Bone morphogenetic protein 4 (BMP4) is key for early cardiac mesoderm induction in hPSC and subsequent cardiomyocyte derivation. Small‐molecular BMP4 mimetics may help to standardize cardiomyocyte derivation from hPSCs. Based on observations that chalcones can stimulate BMP4 signaling pathways, we hypothesized their utility in cardiac mesoderm induction. To test this, we set up a two‐tiered screening strategy, (1) for directed differentiation of hPSCs with commercially available chalcones (4’‐hydroxychalcone [4’HC] and Isoliquiritigen) and 24 newly synthesized chalcone derivatives, and (2) a functional screen to assess the propensity of the obtained cardiomyocytes to self‐organize into contractile engineered human myocardium (EHM). We identified 4’HC, 4‐fluoro‐4’‐methoxychalcone, and 4‐fluoro‐4’‐hydroxychalcone as similarly effective in cardiac mesoderm induction, but only 4’HC as an effective replacement for BMP4 in the derivation of contractile EHM‐forming cardiomyocytes.