The primary heart tube is an endocardial tube, ensheathed by myocardial cells, that develops from bilateral primary heart fields located in the lateral plate mesoderm. Earlier mapping studies of the heart fields performed in whole embryo cultures indicate that all of the myocardium of the developed heart originates from the primary heart fields. In contrast, marking experiments in ovo suggest t...

Cardiac myosin binding protein-C (cMyBP-C) phosphorylation is an important regulator of contractile function, however, its contributions to length-dependent changes in cross-bridge (XB) kinetics is unknown. Therefore, we performed mechanical experiments to quantify contractile function in detergent-skinned ventricular preparations isolated from wild-type (WT) hearts, and hearts expressing non-p...

Background: One common approach to treat the symptoms of coronary artery disease (CAD) is percutaneous intervention (PCI). Unfortunately, myocardium vulnerable ischemia reperfusion damage whenever a previously blocked reopened.

Regional metabolism of exogenous fatty acid extracted by myocardium depends primarily on oxidation. Positron-emission tomography (PET) delineates necrotic myocardium by virtue of its failure to extract labeled fatty acid. In ischemic myocardium, fatty acid is extracted, but metabolized slowly. This study was performed to determine whether viable, but ischemic, tissue could be detected and local...

Regional myocardial blood flow and contractile function in ischemic myocardium are well matched, and there is no evidence for an oxygen supply/demand imbalance. Thus, myocardial ischemia is lack of coronary blood flow with electric, functional, metabolic, and structural consequences for the myocardium. All therapeutic interventions must aim to improve blood flow to ischemic myocardium as much a...

We developed a quantitative approach to assess the antifibrillatory effects of short-term interventions in a canine preparation of ventricular fibrillation caused by coronary reperfusion, and applied it to evaluate the antifibrillatory effects of bretylium tosylate. Twenty-five dogs were given 10 mg/kg infusions of bretylium over 10 min, subjected to a 20 min proximal left anterior descending c...