Culture of Human Cardiomyocytes and its Applications in Drug Discovery and Research
What are Human Cardiomyocytes? The heart is one of the first organs formed in the embryo, which highlights its crucial function in pumping blood to carry oxygen and nutrients to other tissues of the organism whether during development or in later life. Human primordial heart starts to beat at around 22 days after fertilization. It is the presence of cardiomyocytes that results in the early beating of the heart. Cardiomyocytes, or cardiac muscle cells are the main type of heart cells and act as the motor unit to drive heart contraction and relaxation. Particularly, adult human primary cardiomyocyte is a preferred in vitro model to evaluate drug-induced cardiotoxicity risk and develop new drugs for cardiac diseases [1]. How to isolate and culture Human Cardiomyocytes? 1. Incubate cardiac tissue for 15 min in Krebs-Ringer solution supplemented with protease XXIV. 2. Transfer the partially digested tissue to Krebs-Ringer saline containing a combination of col...