MICROPATTERNED CO-CULTURES OF HUMAN IPSC-DERIVED ATRIAL CARDIOMYOCYTES AND CARDIAC FIBROBLASTS FOR DISEASE MODELING AND DRUG SCREENING

Atrial fibrillation (AF) is the most common sustained arrythmia, but current drug therapies are ineffective since they do not target the underlying genetic mechanisms of AF. While some progress has been made to develop in vitro models of the human atria for drug discovery, progress has been stymied due to the functional immaturity of patient-specific induced-pluripotent stem cell-derived atrial cardiomyocytes (iPSC-aCMs). Here, we developed the first-of-its-kind micropatterned co-culture containing precisely aligned iPSC-aCMs surrounded by atrial fibroblasts, which significantly improved the functional maturity of iPSC-aCMs relative to conventional controls. Lastly, we adapted our model to multiwell plates for high-throughput drug screening.