hIPSC derived Epicardial Cells promote Cardiomyocyte Migration
The human heart cannot regenerate if it is diseased or damaged. The zebra-fish heart can regenerate via many mechanisms that include proliferation and migration of cardiomyocytes. The mechanism of cardiomyocyte migration in zebrafish has been shown to be driven by epicardial cells through expression of cxcl12a and cxcr4b genes encoding a chemokine and its receptor (Junji et al. 2012). Whether a similar phenomenon exists between human epicardial cells and cardiomyocytes has not been determined. We hypothesize that epicardial cells cocultured with cardiomyocytes will promote migration in both cell types. Cells were cultured with 2-well ibidi well inserts that created a 500um gap between the two populations. Over the course of 24 hours, time lapse videos were taken and analyzed with the TrackMate plugin in ImageJ. We found that epicardial cell speed increased from 71.9 um/min to 75.1 um/min for a time period of 24 hours in culture. Cardiomyocyte migration speed was not observed to be statistically different between conditions. The measured speed was negligible compared to their cell size. More studies will be needed to further elucidate the means by which human cardiomyocytes promote epicardial cell migration and whether a longer time scale would reveal cardiomyocyte migration. Outcomes of this and future studies may point to means of promoting human cardiac regeneration.
Sources:
- Itou, Junji, et al. “Migration of Cardiomyocytes Is Essential for Heart Regeneration in Zebrafish.” Development, vol. 139, no. 22, 2012, pp. 4133–4142., https://doi.org/10.1242/dev.079756.