Arslanova A, Shafaattalab S, Lin E, Barszczewski T, Hove-Madsen L, and Tibbits GF.
Methods, 2021
Researchers explore the use of Axion’s next-generation multielectrode array (MEA) platform and other methods for examining cardiac arrhythmias.
Inherited heart arrhythmias including atrial fibrillation, long QT syndrome, and Brugada syndrome are considered to be rare, but the consequences of these disorders can be life-threatening. In this article, researchers explore the use of human induced pluripotent stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes (hiPSC-CMs) in conjunction with multielectrode arrays (MEAs) and other methods to investigate cardiac electrical abnormalities associated with arrhythmias. The use of hiPSC-CMs allows scientists to create personalized in vitro models harboring specific genetic variants and avoid species differences seen in traditional animal models.
The authors used Axion’s Maestro Pro MEA platform due to its ability to assay a wide range of cardiac activity including field potentials, propagation, contractility, and local extracellular action potential (LEAP). As noted in the article, other advantages of using MEA include the ability to perform high-throughput experiments, the noninvasive nature of MEA testing which allows consistency and longitudinal experiments, and its use as a complex comprehensive in vitro proarrhythmia assay (CiPA) for evaluating drugs.
In addition to MEAs, other techniques examined in the article included patch clamping and optical mapping—all of which are important approaches for studying inherited and acquired arrhythmias.
