Age-related mitochondrial dysregulation of hiPSC-CMs
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Targeting Age-Related Metabolites to Enhance hiPSC-Cardiomyocyte Differentiation
IRAS ID
364542
Contact name
Fiona Lewis-McDougall
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Queen Mary University of London
Duration of Study in the UK
3 years, 0 months, 0 days
Research summary
Reduced blood flow to the heart is currently the main cause of death worldwide and no widely available treatment exists that can restore heart muscle that is damaged as a result. In recent years, stem cells have emerged as a potentially valuable tool for heart repair as they can be engineered to form new tissues. These replacement tissues could potentially be used to treat heart damage that we would otherwise struggle to repair. Stem cells generated from a patient’s own skin cells, known as induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), have been highlighted as a superior source of stem cells for heart repair as they have similar characteristics to embryonic stem cells and can be used to generate new beating heart tissue. Nevertheless, not all iPSCs are able to generate beating heart cells to the same extent and factors that might impact this
are donor’s age and/or health. In order to investigate this, we will generate iPSCs from aged patients with heart disease and compare them to young-healthy donor iPSCs. We will assess the stability of these cells and their ability to generate mature beating heart cells providing an important insight into their suitability for heart repair.REC name
London - Stanmore Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
26/PR/0183
Date of REC Opinion
5 Mar 2026
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion