Constructing iPS cell-based platforms for disease modeling and drug discovery in cardiovascular fields: Phenotype analysis using self-organization and new imaging techniques

Abstract

Disease-specific iPS cells have been considered and used as platforms for disease modeling and drug discovery for intractable diseases. In the field of cardiovascular medicine, iPS cells have been generated from patients with heart diseases including inherited cardiomyopathy. The disease-specific iPS cells showed the certain parts of phenotype of the disease on culture dishes in in vitro systems, but the cells do not necessarily recapitulate patients' clinical properties, particularly those of physiological-/pathophysiological aspects. The point should be solved to establish disease reliable platforms. The discrepancy may be attributed to the lack of developmental process during culture procedure. To settle the problems, various techniques have been attempted such as culture dishes with specific structures. This review describes issues to be solved to recapitulate "heart diseases on culture dishes", introducing the phenotype of disease specific iPS-cells from patients with cardiomyopathy.