Toward an in vitro human pacemaker

Since their discovery, human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) have been considered a useful and innovative experimental model for studying physiological and pathological processes and drug response, being able to differentiate into all cell types. Particularly, the ability to differentiate hiPSCs into cardiomyocytes (iPSC-CMs) has opened up novel avenues for potential cardiac therapies. In the past, the idea of making biological pacemakers has been explored with the creation of genetically modified human mesenchymal stem cells expressing the cardiac pacemaker channel mHCN2 in such a way that once injected in the canine ventricular wall, they could deliver the heart with a biological pacemaker [9]. However, despite successful, this strategy has not been developed further.