MEA Cardiosensor Services: testing drug effects on cardiac function

Dr. Udo Kraushaar
Group Leader Electrophysiology

+49 7121 51530-851

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Our Cardiosensor is a reliable and rapid system to test for drug effects on cardiac function, including QT-interval prolongation and arrhythmia in vitro.

Cell systems available:

• Stem-cell derived cardiomyocytes
• Primary cardiomyocytes from animal models

The assay is based on the extracellular recording of field action potentials (fAPs) of cardiomyocytes in culture with microelectrode arrays (MEAs). fAPs reflect the concerted activation and inactivation of cardiac ion channels, comparable to an electrocardiogram (ECG) in patients and are thus referred to here as “QT-interval” in vitro.

Drug-induced effects on cardiac function can be observed in our test system, as a prolongation of the fAP duration (“QT-interval in vitro”) and/or arrhythmic beating behavior of the electrically coupled cardiomyocytes.

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Publications

• Schaefer, J, et al. "Laser-Induced Action Potential-Like Measurements of Cardiomyocytes on Microelectrode Arrays for Increased Predictivity of Safety Pharmacology." JoVE Journal 2022 | Contact an Author.

• Kraushaar, Udo, and Elke Guenther. "Assay Procedures for Compound Testing of hiPSC-Derived Cardiomyocytes Using Multiwell Microelectrode Arrays." Cell-Based Assays Using iPSCs for Drug Development and Testing." Methods Mol. Biol. 2019 | Contact an Author.

• Blinova K, et. al. "International Multisite Study of Human Induced Pluripotent Stem Cell-Derived Cardiomyocytes for Drug Proarrhythmic Potential Assessment." Cell Reports 2018 | Contact an author.

• Millard, D. et al. "Cross-Site Reliability of Human Induced Pluripotent stem cell-derived Cardiomyocyte Based Safety Assays Using Microelectrode Arrays: Results from a Blinded CiPA Pilot Study." Toxicological Sciences 2018 | Contact an Author.

• Rast G, Kraushaar U, Buckenmaier S, Ittrich C, Guth BD. Influence of field Potential Duration on Spontaneous Beating rate of Human Induced Pluripotent Stem Cell-derived Cardiomyocytes: Implications for Data Analysis and Test System Selection. J of Pharmacological and Toxicological Methods 2016 | Contact an author.

• Meyer, Thomas, Elke Guenther, and Udo Kraushaar. "Microelectrode arrays in cardiac mapping." Cardiac Mapping 2013 | Contact an Author.

• Kraushaar, Udo, et al. "Cardiac safety pharmacology: from human ether-a-gogo related gene channel block towards induced pluripotent stem cell-based disease models." Expert opinion on drug safety 2012 | Contact an Author.

• Meyer, Thomas, et al. "Cardiac slices as a predictive tool for arrhythmogenic potential of drugs and chemicals." Expert opinion on drug metabolism & toxicology 2010 | Contact an Author.