Heart defects recapitulated in human cardioids

Abstract

A major obstacle to understanding how and why congenital defects occur in the heart is the absence of models that recapitulate the basic cell lineage architecture of human heart development. In a recent study in Cell, Hofbauer and colleagues present compelling evidence that they have created such a model from human pluripotent stem cells by guiding self-organization within cell aggregates (or organoids) which they refer to as "cardioids"; these undergo patterning and morphogenesis to form a cavity-like chamber as in early heart development.