2023/09/25
Keio University School of Medicine
A research group from the Division of Cardiology, Department of Internal Medicine, Keio University School of Medicine, led by Senior Lecturer Shugo Tohyama and Assistant Professor Otowa Sekine, has established a monitoring method for the process of producing cardiomyocytes for transplantation from human induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells. This was achieved in a joint research project with Sysmex Corporation and Heartseed Inc. by detecting various types of microRNAs (miRNAs) secreted into the culture supernatant. They also demonstrated that the detection of characteristic miRNAs makes it possible to easily assess the presence of contaminating undifferentiated stem cells, which may remain after differentiation and potentially form tumors after transplantation. This method contributes to the advancement of cardiac regenerative medicine using human iPS cells, which is gaining attention as an alternative to heart transplantation.
The results of this research were published in the online edition of the international academic journal Stem Cell Reports on September 21, 2023 (U.S. Eastern Time).
Please see below for the full press release.