Primitive macrophages induce sarcomeric maturation and functional enhancement of developing human cardiac microtissues via efferocytic pathways

Abstract

Yolk sac macrophages are the first to seed the developing heart; however, owing to a lack of accessible tissue, there is no understanding of their roles in human heart development and function. In this study, we bridge this gap by differentiating human embryonic stem (hES) cells into primitive LYVE1+ macrophages (hESC-macrophages) that stably engraft within contractile cardiac microtissues composed of hESC-cardiomyocytes and fibroblasts. Engraftment induces a human fetal cardiac macrophage gene program enriched in efferocytic pathways. Functionally, hESC-macrophages trigger cardiomyocyte sarcomeric protein maturation, enhance contractile force and improve relaxation kinetics. Mechanistically, hESC-macrophages engage in phosphatidylserine-dependent ingestion of apoptotic cardiomyocyte cargo, which reduces microtissue stress, leading hESC-cardiomyocytes to more closely resemble early human fetal ventricular cardiomyocytes, both transcriptionally and metabolically. Inhibiting hESC-macrophage efferocytosis impairs sarcomeric protein maturation and reduces cardiac microtissue function. Together, macrophage-engineered human cardiac microtissues represent a considerably improved model for human heart development and reveal a major beneficial role for human primitive macrophages in enhancing early cardiac tissue function. Hamidzada et al. show that human pluripotent stem cell–derived macrophages are educated into a tissue-resident fate within human cardiac microtissues, enhancing its function via efferocytic ingestion of stressed cardiomyocyte cargo.