Metabolic Maturation Exaggerates Abnormal Calcium Handling in a Knockout Human Pluripotent Stem Cell-Derived Cardiomyocyte Model of Danon Disease.

Danon disease (DD) is caused by mutations of the gene encoding lysosomal-associated membrane protein type 2 (), which lead to impaired autophagy, glycogen accumulation, and cardiac hypertrophy. However, it is not well understood why a large portion of DD patients develop arrhythmia and sudden cardiac death. In the current study, we generated knockout (KO) human iPSC-derived cardiomyocytes (CM), which mimic the LAMP2 dysfunction in DD heart. Morphologic analysis demonstrated the sarcomere disarrangement in KO CMs. In functional studies, KO CMs showed near-normal calcium handling at base level. However, treatment of pro-maturation medium (MM) exaggerated the disease phenotype in the KO cells as they exhibited impaired calcium recycling and increased irregular beating events, which recapitulates the pro-arrhythmia phenotypes of DD patients. Further mechanistic study confirmed that MM treatment significantly enhanced the autophagic stress in the KO CMs, which was accompanied by an increase of both cellular and mitochondrial reactive oxygen species (ROS) levels. Excess ROS accumulation in KO CMs resulted in the over-activation of calcium/calmodulin dependent protein kinase IIδ (CaMKIIδ) and arrhythmogenesis, which was partially rescued by the treatment of ROS scavenger. In summary, our study has revealed ROS induced CaMKIIδ overactivation as a key mechanism that promotes cardiac arrhythmia in DD patients.