Description
Cardiomyocyte Selective Medium (CSM) is a complete medium designed for the purification of cardiomyocyte cells derived from human pluripotent stem cells (hPSC). Current protocols allow for the differentiation of hPSC to cardiomyocytes at a high efficiency, however, the derived cells are a mixed population containing non-cardiomyocyte cells. The non-cardiomyocyte cells may interfere with downstream analyses. Density-gradient centrifugation, genetic modification, and cell sorting based on cell surface markers or mitochondria dyes have been applied to enrich for the hPSC-derived cardiomyocytes. These methods, however, either involve complicated procedures or require special equipment, and are not ideal for therapeutic purposes. Based on the unique metabolic properties of fetal and hPSC-derived cardiomyocytes, which can use lactate as a major energy source, CSM is developed to enrich for the hPSC-derived cardiomyocytes using an efficient, easy, and non-invasive approach. CSM is a serum-free medium specially designed for the selective growth of cardiomyocytes. It significantly improves the purity of hPSC-derived cardiomyocyte cell populations in 4 - 6 days, requiring only daily medium change. While culturing in the CSM, the non-cardiomyocyte cells were gradually eliminated, whereas the cardiomyocytes remain contracting in the culture. The CSM can also be used for cardiomyocytes derived from mouse pluripotent stem cell and/or the primary cells isolated from the hearts of rat neonatal pups