Biology subjects

Soh, B.-S.

Publications and source records attributed to Soh, B.-S..

2 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2021

Generation of human chambered cardiac organoids from pluripotent stem cells for improved modelling of cardiovascular diseases

Recent progress on murine and human cardiac organoids have provided understanding to the developmental processes of the heart. However, there is still an unfulfilled need for improved modelling of cardiovascular diseases using human cardiac organoids. Herein, we report successful generation of intrinsically formed human chambered cardiac organoids (CCO) and highlight its utility in modelling disease. Single cell transcriptomic profiling of CCOs showed appropriate cardiovascular cell type composition exhibiting improved maturation. Functionally, CCOs recapitulated clinical cardiac hypertrophy by exhibiting thickened chamber walls, reduced ejection fractions, increased myofibrillar disarray and tachycardia. Therefore, CCOs improve current capabilities of disease modelling as an in vitro model bridging the gap to in vivo models, with the ability to assess functional parameters that previously can only be achieved in animal systems. One sentence summaryModelling cardiac hypertrophy using chambered cardiac organoids derived from human pluripotent stem cells.

cell biology↗

bioRxiv2019

ALS Motor Neurons Exhibit Hallmark Metabolic Defects That Are Rescued by Nicotinamide and SIRT3 Activation

Motor neurons (MNs) are highly energetic cells and recent studies suggest that altered energy metabolism precede MN loss in Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), an age-onset neurodegenerative disease. However, clear mechanistic insights linking altered metabolism and MN death are still missing. In this study, induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) from healthy controls, familial ALS and sporadic ALS patients were differentiated towards spinal MNs, cortical neurons and cardiomyocytes. Metabolic flux analyses reveal a MN-specific deficiency in mitochondrial respiration in ALS. Intriguingly, all forms of familial and sporadic ALS MNs tested in our study exhibited similar defective metabolic profiles, which were attributed to hyper-acetylation of mitochondrial proteins. In the mitochondria, SIRT3 functions as a mitochondrial deacetylase to maintain mitochondrial function and integrity. We found that activating SIRT3 using nicotinamide or a small molecule activator reversed the defective metabolic profiles in all our ALS MNs, as well as correct a constellation of ALS-associated phenotypes.

neuroscience↗