Scalable cardiac differentiation of human pluripotent stem cells as microwell-generated, size controlled three-dimensional aggregates.

ABSTRACT

The formation of cells into more physiologically relevant three-dimensional multicellular aggregates is an important technique for the differentiation and manipulation of stem cells and their progeny. As industrial and clinical applications for these cells increase, it will be necessary to execute this procedure in a readily scalable format. We present here a method employing microwells to generate large numbers of human pluripotent stem cell aggregates and control their subsequent differentiation towards a cardiac fate.