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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2014 Oct 31.
Published in final edited form as: Sci Transl Med. 2014 Jun 4;6(239):239ps6. doi: 10.1126/scitranslmed.3008921

Fig. 2. iPSC-derived cardiomyocytes for drug screening and toxicity testing.

Fig. 2

Because of the sensitivity of the hERG potassium ion channel to drug-induced cytotoxicity, the safety of new candidate drugs is tested by looking at their effects on hERG electrophysiology. This assay is routinely performed in Chinese hamster ovary cells or human embryonic kidney cells engineered to express hERG, which do not exhibit the complex physiology of human cardiomyocytes. Human cardiomyocytes derived from induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) are promising new tools for drug discovery and have already permitted drug testing and toxicology studies for a variety of human cardiac disorders. These cardiac disorders, caused by a variety of mutations, include LQTS, CPVT, DCM, HCM, and arrhythmogenic right ventricular dysplasia/cardiomyopathy (ARVD/C).