A hiPSC-derived lineage-specific vascular smooth muscle cell-on-a-chip identifies aortic heterogeneity across segments.
Gang LiuJun LiYang MingBitao XiangXiaonan ZhouYabin ChenNan ChenMieradilijiang AbudupataerShichao ZhuXiaoning SunYongxin SunHao LaiSisi FengChunsheng WangKai ZhuPublished in: Lab on a chip (2023)
Aortic aneurysm (AA), a potentially lethal condition with the characteristic of aortic dilatation, can only be treated by surgical or endovascular procedures. The underlying mechanisms of AA are unclear and early preventive treatment is still insufficient due to segmental aortic heterogeneity and the limitations of current disease models. Here, we firstly established a comprehensive lineage-specific vascular smooth muscle cell (SMC)-on-a-chip model using human induced pluripotent stem cells to yield cell lineages representing different segments of the aorta and tested the constructed organ-on-a-chip model under various tensile stress conditions. Bulk RNA sequencing, RT-qPCR, immunofluorescence, western blot and FACS analyses were performed to discover the segmental aortic heterogeneity of response for tensile stress and drug testing. The appropriate stretching frequency for all lineages of SMCs was 1.0 Hz, paraxial mesoderm (PM) SMCs were more sensitive to tensile stress than lateral mesoderm (LM) SMCs and neural crest (NC) SMCs. These differences may be related to the different transcriptional profiles of the tension-stressed distinct lineage-specific vascular SMCs, specifically in relation to the PI3K-Akt signaling pathway. Also, the organ-on-a-chip displayed contractile physiology, perfect fluid coordination, and was conducive to drug testing, displaying heterogeneous segmental aortic responses. Compared with LM-SMCs and NC-SMCs, PM-SMCs were more sensitive to ciprofloxacin. The model is evaluated as a novel and suitable supplement to AA animal models for determining differential physiology and drug response in different parts of the aorta. Furthermore, this system could pave the way for disease modeling, drug testing, and the personalized treatment of patients with AA in the future.
Keyphrases
- single cell
- smooth muscle
- aortic valve
- high throughput
- pulmonary artery
- aortic dissection
- induced pluripotent stem cells
- left ventricular
- signaling pathway
- circulating tumor cells
- coronary artery
- particulate matter
- cell therapy
- pseudomonas aeruginosa
- gene expression
- pulmonary arterial hypertension
- air pollution
- aortic aneurysm
- pulmonary hypertension
- polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons
- stem cells
- epithelial mesenchymal transition
- drug induced
- wastewater treatment
- adverse drug
- pluripotent stem cells
- transcription factor
- pi k akt
- risk assessment
- stress induced
- current status
- dna methylation
- genome wide
- endoplasmic reticulum stress
- smoking cessation