Rampoldi Antonio, Jha Rajneesh, Fite Jordan, Boland Gene, Xu Chunhui
Division of Pediatric Cardiology, Department of Pediatrics, Emory University School of Medicine and Children's Healthcare of Atlanta, Atlanta, GA, USA.
Techshot, Inc., Greenville, IN, USA.
Biomaterials. 2021 Feb;269:120673. doi: 10.1016/j.biomaterials.2021.120673. Epub 2021 Jan 11.
Space experimentation of cardiomyocyte differentiation from human induced pluripotent stem cells offers an exciting opportunity to explore the potential of these cells for disease modeling, drug discovery and regenerative medicine. Previous studies on the International Space Station were done with 2D non-cryopreserved cultures of cardiomyocytes being loaded and cultivated in spaceflight culture modules with CO. Here we report the development of methods of cryopreservation and CO-independent culture of 3D cardiac progenitors. The cryopreservation allows preparation and pretesting of the cells before spaceflight, makes it easier to transport the cell culture, reduces the impact of strong gravitational force exerted on the cells during the launch of spaceflight, and accommodates a more flexible working schedule for the astronauts. The use of CO-independent medium with supplements supports cell growth and differentiation without a CO incubator. With these methods, we conducted a spaceflight experiment through the SpaceX-20 mission to evaluate the effect of microgravity on the survival and differentiation of 3D cardiac progenitors. Our cryopreserved cardiac progenitor spheres were successfully cultivated in a spaceflight culture module without CO for 3 weeks aboard the International Space Station. Beating cardiomyocytes were generated and returned to the earth for further study.
利用人类诱导多能干细胞进行心肌细胞分化的空间实验，为探索这些细胞在疾病建模、药物发现和再生医学方面的潜力提供了一个令人兴奋的机会。此前在国际空间站上进行的研究是使用二维非冷冻保存的心肌细胞培养物，在配备有二氧化碳的太空飞行培养模块中加载和培养。在此，我们报告了三维心脏祖细胞的冷冻保存方法和无二氧化碳培养方法的进展。冷冻保存可在太空飞行前对细胞进行制备和预测试，便于细胞培养物的运输，减少太空飞行发射过程中强大重力对细胞的影响，并为宇航员提供更灵活的工作时间表。使用添加了补充剂的无二氧化碳培养基可在无二氧化碳培养箱的情况下支持细胞生长和分化。利用这些方法，我们通过SpaceX-20任务进行了一次太空飞行实验，以评估微重力对三维心脏祖细胞存活和分化的影响。我们冷冻保存的心脏祖细胞球在国际空间站上的无二氧化碳太空飞行培养模块中成功培养了3周。生成了跳动的心肌细胞并返回地球作进一步研究。
