Optogenetic targeting of cardiac myocytes and non-myocytes: Tools, challenges and utility

Targeting Cardiac Myocytes by Gene Transfer

among the earliest in the field, and more recently gene and cell therapies have demonstrated significant potential for the treatment of common cardiovascular problems such as refractory myocardial ischaemia and dysfunction. Accumulating preclinical studies are providing an increasingly sound scientific basis for cautious human evaluation of additional gene and cell therapy strategies. Furthermo...

Cardiac Myocytes and Mechanosensation

Neonatal Rat Cardiac Myocytes

This study tested the hypothesis that the initiating mechanism is a major determinant of the response to calcium (Ca) accumulation in myocardium. Cultured neonatal rat ventriculocytes were exposed to Na', K+ pump inhibition with 1 mM ouabain and metabolic inhibition with 20 mM 2-deoxy--glucose and 1 mM cyanide (DOG-CN) for up to 2 h. Microspectrofluorometry of myocytes loaded with fura-2 showed...

Polyploidization of transplanted cardiac myocytes

Pieces of cardiac ventricuhu tissue of late embryonic or l-day postnatal rats, implanted beneath the kidney capsule of adult syngeneic hosts, formed viable, beating transplants. These transplants were investigated over a 40-day postoperative course. In the transplants, cellular binucleation and nuclear polyploidization occurred according to the same schedule as in the heart in situ. The composi...

Neonatal, and Adult Rabbit Cardiac Myocytes

Measurement of transsarcolemmal voltage-gated Ca2' current ('Ca) in myocytes isolated from immature rabbit heart has demonstrated an unexpectedly low level of Ca2` channel activity. We have characterized the kinetic properties of lCa in acutely isolated 21-day fetal, 1-5-day-old neonatal, and adult cardiac myocytes by the whole-cell voltage-clamp technique. The membrane potential for half-maxim...