Browsing by Author "Andersson, Charlotta"

Heart failure is a global health issue that can result from various factors, one of which is myocardial infarction. The adult human heart has limited regenerative capacity to cover the loss of cardiomyocytes after myocardial infarction with new cardiomyocytes. The main responses to the loss of cardiomyocytes are fibrotic scar formation and the hypertrophy of remaining cardiomyocytes. Prolonged hypertrophy eventually leads to heart failure. Current treatments for heart failure only relieve the symptoms. Inducing cardiac regeneration could be one possible way to prevent and treat heart failure. Thus, to develop medical treatments that enhance the regenerative capacity, a comprehensive understanding of precise cellular mechanisms behind heart regeneration is crucial. The objective of this study was to establish a high-content analysis method for human induced pluripotent stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes (hiPSC-CMs) utilizing the Cell Painting assay to identify and categorize morphological alterations induced by various compounds in hiPSC-CMs. To evaluate the morphological impacts, dozens or even hundreds of cell features were measured at the same time. hiPSC-CMs were exposed to two hypertrophy inducers, endothelin-1 and angiotensin II, and to doxorubicin, which is known to be a cardiotoxic compound. In addition, the effects of a GATA4- targeting compound, C-2021, on hiPSC-CMs were examined. C-2021, was expected to have antihypertrophic effect on the cells. Previously used methods, proBNP staining and qPCR, were used to validate the novel method. According to proBNP staining and qPCR, endothelin-1 induced cardiomyocyte hypertrophy greater than angiotensin II. Compound C-2021 did not show statistically significant antihypertrophic properties after hypertrophic stimuli, but some tendency the alleviate the hypertrophy was noticed. Moreover, by utilizing different data processing programs a novel analysis method was developed. With this method, the different treatment groups were clustered based on the morphological alterations caused by compounds exposures. The hiPSC-CMs exposed to endothelin-1, angiotensin II or doxorubicin showed a different morphological profile compared to the control group hiPSC-CMs. Compound C-2021 was also observed to affect cell morphology. However, the data analysis still needs improvements in order to detect which cell features these compounds affect.