Gema Mondejar Parreno

All Publications

• Antiproliferative miR-212-5p: Promising RNA therapy for pulmonary hypertension. Molecular therapy. Nucleic acids Perez-Vizcaino, F., Mondejar-Parreno, G. 2022; 29: 689-690

  View details for DOI 10.1016/j.omtn.2022.08.015

  View details for PubMedID 36090757

• Cardiac and Pulmonary Vascular Dysfunction in Vitamin D-Deficient Bmpr2-Mutant Rats. American journal of respiratory cell and molecular biology Olivencia, M. A., Esquivel-Ruiz, S., Callejo, M., Mondejar-Parreno, G., Quintana-Villamandos, B., Barreira, B., Sacedon, R., Cogolludo, A., Perros, F., Mendes-Ferreira, P., Perez Vizcaino, F. 2022; 67 (3): 402-405

  View details for DOI 10.1165/rcmb.2022-0001LE

  View details for PubMedID 36047774

• Cardiac and Pulmonary Vascular Dysfunction in Vitamin D-Deficient Bmpr2-Mutant Rats AMERICAN JOURNAL OF RESPIRATORY CELL AND MOLECULAR BIOLOGY Olivencia, M. A., Esquivel-Ruiz, S., Callejo, M., Mondejar-Parreno, G., Quintana-Villamandos, B., Barreira, B., Sacedon, R., Cogolludo, A., Perros, F., Mendes-Ferreira, P., Perez Vizcaino, F. 2022; 67 (3): 402-405

  View details for Web of Science ID 000851401200013

• Technical Applications of Microelectrode Array and Patch Clamp Recordings on Human Induced Pluripotent Stem Cell-Derived Cardiomyocytes. Journal of visualized experiments : JoVE Zhao, S. R., Mondejar-Parreno, G., Li, D., Shen, M., Wu, J. C. 2022

  Abstract

  Drug-induced cardiotoxicity is the leading cause of drug attrition and withdrawal from the market. Therefore, using appropriate preclinical cardiac safety assessment models is a critical step during drug development. Currently, cardiac safety assessment is still highly dependent on animal studies. However, animal models are plagued by poor translational specificity to humans due to species-specific differences, particularly in terms of cardiac electrophysiological characteristics. Thus, there is an urgent need to develop a reliable, efficient, and human-based model for preclinical cardiac safety assessment. Human-induced pluripotent stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes (hiPSC-CMs) have emerged as an invaluable in vitro model for drug-induced cardiotoxicity screening and disease modeling. hiPSC-CMs can be obtained from individuals with diverse genetic backgrounds and various diseased conditions, making them an ideal surrogate to assess drug-induced cardiotoxicity individually. Therefore, methodologies to comprehensively investigate the functional characteristics of hiPSC-CMs need to be established. In this protocol, we detail various functional assays that can be assessed on hiPSC-CMs, including the measurement of contractility, field potential, action potential, and calcium handling. Overall, the incorporation of hiPSC-CMs into preclinical cardiac safety assessment has the potential to revolutionize drug development.

  View details for DOI 10.3791/64265

  View details for PubMedID 35993757

• Generation of human induced pluripotent stem cell lines carrying heterozygous PLN mutation from dilated cardiomyopathy patients. Stem cell research Caudal, A., Mondejar-Parreno, G., Vera, C. D., Williams, D. R., Shenoy, S. P., Liang, D., Wu, J. C. 2022; 63: 102855

  Abstract

  Familial dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) is among the most prevalent forms of inherited heart disease. Here, two human-induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) lines were generated from peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) from DCM patients carrying different mutations in the phospholamban encoding-gene (PLN). Both iPSC lines exhibited normal morphology, karyotype, pluripotency marker expression, and differentiation into the three germ layers. These patient-specific iPSC lines serve as valuable in vitro models for DCM pathology caused by PLN mutations.

  View details for DOI 10.1016/j.scr.2022.102855

  View details for PubMedID 35853412

• Restoration of Vitamin D Levels Improves Endothelial Function and Increases TASK-Like K+ Currents in Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension Associated with Vitamin D Deficiency. Biomolecules Callejo, M., Morales-Cano, D., Mondejar-Parreno, G., Barreira, B., Esquivel-Ruiz, S., Olivencia, M. A., Moreno, L., Cogolludo, A., Perez-Vizcaino, F. 2021; 11 (6)

  Abstract

  Background: Vitamin D (vitD) deficiency is highly prevalent in patients with pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH). Moreover, PAH-patients with lower levels of vitD have worse prognosis. We hypothesize that recovering optimal levels of vitD in an animal model of PAH previously depleted of vitD improves the hemodynamics, the endothelial dysfunction and the ionic remodeling. Methods: Male Wistar rats were fed a vitD-free diet for five weeks and then received a single dose of Su5416 (20 mg/Kg) and were exposed to vitD-free diet and chronic hypoxia (10% O2) for three weeks to induce PAH. Following this, vitD deficient rats with PAH were housed in room air and randomly divided into two groups: (a) continued on vitD-free diet or (b) received an oral dose of 100,000 IU/Kg of vitD plus standard diet for three weeks. Hemodynamics, pulmonary vascular remodeling, pulmonary arterial contractility, and K+ currents were analyzed. Results: Recovering optimal levels of vitD improved endothelial function, measured by an increase in the endothelium-dependent vasodilator response to acetylcholine. It also increased the activity of TASK-1 potassium channels. However, vitD supplementation did not reduce pulmonary pressure and did not ameliorate pulmonary vascular remodeling and right ventricle hypertrophy. Conclusions: Altogether, these data suggest that in animals with PAH and severe deficit of vitD, restoring vitD levels to an optimal range partially improves some pathophysiological features of PAH.

  View details for DOI 10.3390/biom11060795

  View details for PubMedID 34073580

• Generation of three heterozygous KCNH2 mutation-carrying human induced pluripotent stem cell lines for modeling LQT2 syndrome. Stem cell research Mondejar-Parreno, G., Jahng, J. W., Belbachir, N., Wu, B. C., Zhang, X., Perez, M. V., Badhwar, N., Wu, J. C. 2021; 54: 102402

  Abstract

  Congenital long QT syndrome type 2 (LQT2) results from KCNH2 mutations that cause loss of Kv11.1 channel function which can lead to arrhythmias, syncope, and sudden death. Here, we generated three human-induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) lines from peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) of two LQT2 patients carrying pathogenic variants (c.1714G>A and c.2960del) and one LQT2 patient carrying a variant of uncertain significance (c.1870A>T) in KCNH2. All lines show typical iPSC morphology, high expression of pluripotent markers, normal karyotype, and differentiate into three germ layers in vitro. These lines are valuable resources for studying the pathological mechanisms of LQTS caused by caused by KCNH2 mutations.

  View details for DOI 10.1016/j.scr.2021.102402

  View details for PubMedID 34051449