What is It?

This is human heart muscle in a dish, beating spontaneously.

It was made by Dr Lei Ye of the Stem Cell Institute from human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSC). These were made by our iPSC facility from human skin cells into which 4 specific genes were temporarily introduced. The heart muscle cells were enabled to develop from the iPSC using a special medium and substrate.

It is hoped to use cells like this for the treatment of heart disease by replacing heart muscle that has been destroyed.

Technical details:
Starting cells: human foreskin fibroblasts (Lonza).
Genes: Oct4, Sox4, Klf4, c-Myc. (Takahashi et al., 2007)
Non-integrating vector: Sendai virus (Invitrogen). (Fusaki et al., 2009)
iPSC identifier: PCBC16hsi2011111503
Differentiation conditions: Matrigel sandwich (T.Kamp, University of Wisconsin)

References:
Fusaki, N., Ban, H., Nishiyama, A., Saeki, K. and Hasegawa, M. (2009) 'Efficient induction of transgene-free human pluripotent stem cells using a vector based on Sendai virus, an RNA virus that does not integrate into the host genome', Proc. Jpn. Acad., Ser. B 85: 348-362.
Takahashi, K., Tanabe, K., Ohnuki, M., Narita, M., Ichisaka, T., Tomoda, K. and Yamanaka, S. (2007) 'Induction of pluripotent stem cells from adult human fibroblasts by defined factors', Cell 131(5): 861-872.