Question

You are a researcher studying the potential cardiac toxicity of a new drug that your company is developing. You have three potential in vitro models available to you: a 3D model of the human heart (cardiac spheroids) using primary cells as the source for cardiomyocytes, culture of embyronic stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes from rats, or the Langendorff isolated heart preparation.

Choose one of these models that you would use and explain why. Include in your reasoning at least one pro and one con.

Answer 1

Culture of embryonic stem cell - derive cell derived cardiomyocytes from rats can be used to study the toxicity of the drug. It can give an idea on how the new drug interacts with the molecules in the cell and if it upregulates or downregulates any other pathways which is important in cell functioning.

This model can be easiily done whereas producing a 3D model is expensive.

Disadvantages is it can show the effects of drug only in cardiomyocytes and it's effect on other heart cells are unknown. Since blood circulates throughout the body, it is important to know if has any negetive effect on other organs.