Honors Theses and Capstones

Date of Award

Spring 2024

Project Type

Senior Honors Thesis

College or School

COLSA

Department

Molecular, Cellular, and Biomedical Sciences

Program or Major

Biochemistry, Molecular and Cellular Biology

Degree Name

Bachelor of Science

First Advisor

Feixia Chu

Abstract

Heart disease and injury is the leading cause of death worldwide, with much of its severity caused by the low regenerative capacity of cardiomyocytes (CMs). One of the strategies to counteract the poor regeneration of CMs is the production of CMs via differentiating stem cells. However, the low efficiency of obtaining CMs from stem cells is an issue because there are numerous inconsistencies in the process. Histone deacetylase (HDAC) inhibitors have been researched as ways to increase efficiency of CM differentiation by increasing histone acetylation, and thereby allowing differentiation to occur more efficiently. In this study, the HDAC inhibitor, trichostatin A (TSA), was investigated to analyze its effect on accelerating the process of CM differentiation by treatment with different concentrations. This was performed using the hanging drop method of differentiation to perform multiple differentiations, so the prevalence of beating morphology associated with CMs could be observed under different treatments. One trial was successful and demonstrated that the application of 10 nM TSA was an ideal concentration for efficiency of CM differentiation. While these results were promising, the complications with the first differentiation trials and issues with replication of the successful trial indicated that these results may be inconsistent. Further replications must be performed to ensure the results found in this study are accurate and reproducible.

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