Heart disease can potentially be treated by using cardiomyocytes derived from hESCs. Researchers have demonstrated proof-of-concept of this approach in mice. Mouse embryonic stem cells have been used to derive mouse cardiomyocytes. When injected into the hearts of recipient adult mice, the cardiomyocytes repopulated the heart tissue and stably integrated into the muscle tissue of the adult mouse heart. In human medicine, it is therefore possible that hESC-derived cardiomyocytes could be developed for cellular transplantation therapy in humans suffering from congestive heart failure and the damage caused by heart attacks.
We have derived human cardiomyocytes from hESCs (GRNCM1) using a process that can be scaled for clinical production. GRNCM1 has normal contractile function and responds appropriately to cardiac drugs. We have transplanted these cells into animal models of myocardial infarction in which the cells engraft and improve the left ventricular function compared to those animals receiving injections without cells. These results were published in Nature Biotechnology in August 2007. We are now conducting preclinical large animal studies of GRNCM1.
