Directed cardiomyogenesis of human pluripotent stem cells by modulating Wnt/β-catenin and BMP signalling with small molecules

Cardiomyocytes derived from human pluripotent stem cells (PSCs) are a potential cell source for regenerative medicine, disease modelling and drug development. However, current approaches for in vitro cardiac differentiation of human PSCs are often time-consuming, heavily depend on expensive growth factors and involve the tedious formation of embryonic bodies whose signalling pathways are difficult to precisely modulate due to their complex microenvironments. In the present study, we report a new small molecule-based differentiation approach, which significantly promoted contracting cardiomyocytes in human PSCs in a monolayer format in as little as 7 days, in contrast with most traditional differentiation methods that usually take up to 3 weeks for cardiomyogenesis. This approach consists in activation of the Wnt/β-catenin signalling at day 0–1 with small molecule CHIR99021 (CH) followed by inhibition of bone morphogenetic protein (BMP) signalling at day 1–4 with DMH1 [termed as CH(0-1)/DMH1(1-4) treatment], a selective small molecule BMP inhibitor reported by us previously. Our study further demonstrated that the CH(0-1)/DMH1(1-4) treatment significantly promotes cardiac formation via mesoderm and mesoderm-derived cardiac progenitor cells without impacts on either endoderm or ectoderm differentiation of human PSCs. This rapid, efficient and inexpensive small molecule-based cardiomyogenic method may potentially harness the use of human PSCs in regenerative medicine as well as other applications.