A dual cardiomyocyte reporter model derived from human pluripotent stem cells

Cardiovascular diseases (CVD) remain the leading cause of death in the USA. Cardiomyocytes (CMs) derived from human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs) provide a valuable cell source for regenerative therapy, disease modeling, and drug screening. Here, we established a hPSC line integrated with a mCherry fluorescent protein driven by the alpha myosin heavy chain (aMHC) promoter, which could be used to purify CMs based on the aMHC promoter activity in these cells. Combined with a fluorescent voltage indicator, ASAP2f, we achieved a dual reporter CM platform, which enables purification and characterization of CM subtypes and holds great potential for disease modeling and drug discovery of CVD. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s13287-021-02341-6.