Significance of Oxygen Supply for Toxicity Evaluation using iPS Cell-derived Functional Cells

抄録

Functional cells derived from human iPS cells (hiPSC) show potential for use in the evaluation of drug toxicity and kinetics. Recently, there has been an increasing demand for alternative in vitro methods to animal testing, and hiPSC-derived cells such the nerve, cardiomyocyte and airway epithelium and so on are being used for the evaluation of drug toxicity and kinetics.

hiPSC cardiomyocytes (CMs) have ion channels expressed in human heart tissue, such as hERG channels, and are therefore expected to be a tool for predicting the risk of torsade de pointes (TdP) caused by pharmaceuticals. In the myocardium, the majority of ATP is synthesized in mitochondria. Therefore, oxygen supply to hiPSC-CMs is important for investigating their physiological properties. In the present study, we evaluated the effect of oxygen-permeable plate on hiPSC-CM culture. Additionally, we examined its effects on drug responsiveness. Unlike previous reports using other culture systems, hiPSC-CMs cultured on oxygen-permeable plates showed the possibility of evaluating cardiac toxicity.