# Maturation of Human Pluripotent Stem Cell-Derived Cardiomyocytes

> **NIH NIH R01** · EMORY UNIVERSITY · 2020 · $390,000

## Abstract

MATURATION OF HUMAN PLURIPOTENT STEM CELL-DERIVED CARDIOMYOCYTES
PROJECT SUMMARY
Human pluripotent stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes (hPSC-CMs) provide a novel and physiologically relevant
source of cells that have the potential to be used for in vitro cardiotoxicity testing and disease modeling as well
as for the study of in vivo heart development and regenerative medicine. However, compared with primary
human CMs, hPSC-CMs are structurally and functionally less mature, which limits their ability to accurately
predict cardiotoxicity and model human development and diseases, and may result in adverse events such as
arrhythmias upon transplantation. Therefore, improving hPSC-CM maturation is paramount in order to improve
applications of these cells. We and other groups have previously demonstrated that efficient CM differentiation
from hPSCs can be achieved via mimicking molecular signaling of cardiac induction during in vivo cardiogenesis.
In our recent publications, we have also shown that microscale tissue engineering enables reliable generation
of 3D cardiac spheres that contain highly enriched hPSC-CMs with enhanced sarcomeric structural maturation.
We hypothesize that a multipronged, synergistic approach combining tissue engineering with modulation of
multiple molecular signaling pathways can efficiently improve hPSC-CM maturation within short culture
durations. With this hypothesis, we aim to enable metabolic and functional maturation of hPSC-CMs by providing
the cells with (1) appropriate chemical signals to modulate metabolic maturation and (2) suitable environmental
cues to mimic the transition from fetal CMs to postnatal CMs. We expect that this study will lead to the
establishment of hPSC-CMs with cardiophysiology closer to human hearts, which will facilitate their applications
in preclinical and clinical studies, and provide novel insights into molecular regulation of CM maturation.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9873064
- **Project number:** 5R01HL136345-03
- **Recipient organization:** EMORY UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** Chunhui Xu
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $390,000
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2018-02-01 → 2022-01-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9873064

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9873064, Maturation of Human Pluripotent Stem Cell-Derived Cardiomyocytes (5R01HL136345-03). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9873064. Licensed CC0.

---

*[NIH grants dataset](/datasets/nih-grants) · CC0 1.0*