Maturing heart muscle cells: Mechanisms and transcriptomic insights

Cardiomyocyte (CM) maturation is the transformation of differentiated fetal CMs into adult CMs that involves changes in morphology, cell function and metabolism, and the transcriptome. This process is, however, incomplete and ultimately arrested in pluripotent stem cell-derived CMs (PSC-CMs) in culture, which hinders their broad biomedical application. For this reason, enormous efforts are currently being made with the goal of generating mature PSC-CMs. In this review, we summarize key aspects of maturation observed in native CMs and discuss recent findings on the factors and mechanisms that regulate the process. Particular emphasis is put on transcriptional regulation and single-cell RNA-sequencing analysis that has emerged as a key tool to study timeseries gene regulation and to determine the maturation state. We then discuss different biomimetic strategies to enhance PSC-CM maturation and discuss their effects at the single cell transcriptomic and functional levels.