Doing the dirty work: progress in the search for a reliable protocol for cardiomyogenesis

Cardiomyocytes generated from pluripotent stem cells have the potential to facilitate our understanding of cardiac diseases and help in their treatment. However, realizing the full potential of this technology is limited by the field's inability to efficiently and reliably differentiate pluripotent stem cells into cardiomyocytes. But now, due to a massive undertaking by Burridge and colleagues in a recent issue of PLOS One, we are one step closer to the reliable creation of cardiomyocytes. By systematically addressing 45 different variables, Burridge and colleagues were able to develop a protocol that consistently produced cardiomyocytes independent of the cell source. However, work still needs to be done to increase the efficiency and definitively determine the maturity of the myocytes generated through such a protocol.