Aims:The effects of acute (100s) hypoxia and/or acidosis on Ca 2+ signaling parameters of human induced pluripotent stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes (hiPSC-CM) are explored here for the first time.Methods and Results: 1) hiPSC-CMs express two cell populations: rapidly-inactivating I Ca myocytes (τ i <40ms, in 4-5 day cultures) and slowly-inactivating I Ca (τ i ≥ 40ms, in 6-8 day cultures). 2) Hypoxia suppressed I Ca by 10-20% in rapidly-and 40-55% in slowly-inactivating I Ca cells. 3) Isoproterenol enhanced I Ca in hiPSC-CMs, but either enhanced or did not alter the hypoxic suppression. 4) Hypoxia had no differential suppressive effects in the two cell-types when Ba 2+ was the charge carrier through the calcium channels, implicating Ca 2+ -dependent inactivation in O 2 sensing. 5) Acidosis suppressed I Ca by ~35% and ~25% in rapidly and slowly inactivating I Ca cells, respectively. 6) Hypoxia and acidosis suppressive effects on Ca-transients depended on whether global or RyR2-microdomain were measured: with acidosis suppression was ~25% in global and ~37% in RyR2 Ca 2+ -microdomains in either cell type, whereas with hypoxia suppression was ~20% and ~25% respectively in global and RyR2-microdomaine in rapidly and ~35% and ~45% respectively in global and RyR2-microdomaine in slowly-inactivating cells.
Conclusions:Variability in I Ca inactivation kinetics rather than cellular ancestry seems to underlie the action potential morphology differences generally attributed to mixed atrial and ventricular cell populations in hiPSC-CMs cultures. The differential hypoxic regulation of Ca 2+signaling in the two-cell types arises from differential Ca 2+ -dependent inactivation of the Ca 2+channel caused by proximity of Ca 2+ -release stores to the Ca 2+ channels.