Modelling genetic heart diseases with patient-specific induced pluripotent stem cells
by Michael Stauske
Date of Examination:2014-06-18
Date of issue:2014-09-23
Advisor:PD Dr. Kaomei Guan-Schmidt
Referee:Prof. Dr. Ernst A. Wimmer
Referee:Prof. Dr. Dr. Wolfgang Engel
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Abstract
English
Brugada syndrome (BrS), a cardiac genetic disease, is one of the major causes of sudden cardiac death in healthy young people. However, the underlying electrophysiological and molecular mechanisms have not been completely understood. A major challenge in cardiac translational research is the lack of tissue culture systems replicating human pathology to study disease mechanisms and to identify druggable targets. Aim of this study was to study the pathophysiological and molecular mechanisms of BrS in vitro using patient-specific induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) as a renewable and unlimited source for cardiomyocytes (CMs). In this study, human iPSCs were generated from a 45-year-old healthy donor and a 50-year-old patient with BrS putatively caused by the heterozygous point mutation C5435A in the gene SCN5A coding for the α -subunit of the cardiac sodium channel (NaV1.5). The generated human iPSCs showed pluripotency and were able to differentiate into spontaneously beating CMs. Sodium current (INa) measurements revealed a significantly reduced current with a delayed activation in BrS-CMs compared to control cells, indicating a NaV1.5 loss of function. In BrS-CMs, the intermediate inactivation of sodium channels was slightly but not significantly enhanced whereas steady-state inactivation, recovery from inactivation, and persistent INa were not affected. In addition, an electrophysiological maturation process could also be detected, which was shown by a larger INa in 3-month-old compared to 1-month-old CMs. Action potential (AP) measurements showed a reduced Vmax and higher arrhythmic tendencies in BrS-CMs compared to control cells. A significantly higher variability of the AP durations as well as early and delayed afterdepolarizations could be observed. AP measurements in control cells under the treatment with the sodium channel blocker flecainide suggest that the increased AP duration variability in BrS-CMs is linked to the reduced INa. However, treatment of BrS-CMs with the class I antiarrhythmic agent quinidine, which is currently investigated for its therapeutic effect on BrS, could not reduce the beat-to-beat variability of AP durations. Furthermore, quantitative real-time PCR showed that SCN5A was slightly but not significantly upregulated in BrS-CMs compared to the control cells with an allele-specific balanced expression. However, full-length NaV1.5 protein was detected in BrS-CMs at a level of 82 % compared to the control. The question whether the truncated NaV1.5 protein is integrated into the cell membrane or regulated by increased protein degradation remains open. The data of this study demonstrate that patient-specific hiPSCs can be used to model BrS and provide a platform for the development of personalized drug therapy.
Keywords: induced pluripotent stem cells; disease modelling; Brugada syndrome; cardiac sodium channel