scholarly journals Combinatorial Treatment of Human Cardiac Engineered Tissues With Biomimetic Cues Induces Functional Maturation as Revealed by Optical Mapping of Action Potentials and Calcium Transients

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andy On-Tik Wong ◽  
Nicodemus Wong ◽  
Lin Geng ◽  
Maggie Zi-ying Chow ◽  
Eugene K. Lee ◽  
...  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Manuel Marina-Breysse ◽  
Alba García-Escolano ◽  
Joaquín Vila-García ◽  
Gabriel Reale-Nosei ◽  
José M. Alfonso-Almazán ◽  
...  

Clinicians, biologists, physicists, engineers, and computer scientists are coming together to better understand heart disease, which is currently the leading cause of death globally. Optical mapping, a high-speed fluorescence imaging technique that visualizes and measures key cardiac parameters such as action potentials, cytosolic calcium transients, and fibrillation dynamics, is a core research tool that has arisen from such interdisciplinary collaborations. In an effort to broaden its use, especially among clinical scientists and students, we developed a complete and low-cost optical mapping system, including a constant-flow Langendorff perfusion system, which minimizes the economic threshold to widespread use of this powerful tool in cardiac electrophysiology research. The system described here provides high spatiotemporal resolution data about action potentials, intracellular calcium transients and fibrillation wave dynamics in isolated Langendorff-perfused hearts (pigs and rabbits), relevant for translational research. All system components and software elements are fully disclosed with the aim of increasing the use of this affordable and highly versatile tool among clinicians, basic scientists and students wishing to tackle their own research questions with their own customizable systems.


2001 ◽  
Vol 280 (5) ◽  
pp. H2053-H2060 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kenneth R. Laurita ◽  
Ashish Singal

Intracellular calcium handling plays an important role in cardiac electrophysiology. Using two fluorescent indicators, we developed an optical mapping system that is capable of measuring calcium transients and action potentials at 256 recording sites simultaneously from the intact guinea pig heart. On the basis of in vitro measurements of dye excitation and emission spectra, excitation and emission filters at 515 ± 5 and >695 nm, respectively, were used to measure action potentials with di-4-ANEPPS, and excitation and emission filters at 365 ± 25 and 485 ± 5 nm, respectively, were used to measure calcium transients with indo 1. The percent error due to spectral overlap was small when action potentials were measured (1.7 ± 1.0%, n = 3) and negligible when calcium transients were measured (0%, n = 3). Recordings of calcium transients, action potentials, and isochrone maps of depolarization time and the time of calcium transient onset indicated negligible error due to fluorescence emission overlap. These data demonstrate that the error due to spectral overlap of indo 1 and di-4-ANEPPS is sufficiently small, such that optical mapping techniques can be used to measure calcium transients and action potentials simultaneously in the intact heart.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jakub Tomek ◽  
Zhinuo Jenny Wang ◽  
Rebecca-Ann Beatrice Burton ◽  
Neil Herring ◽  
Gil Bub

AbstractOptical mapping is widely used in experimental cardiology, as it allows visualization of cardiac membrane potential and calcium transients. However, optical mapping measurements from a single heart or cell culture can produce several gigabytes of data, warranting automated computer analysis. Here we present COSMAS, a software toolkit for automated analysis of optical mapping recordings in cardiac preparations. COSMAS generates activation and conduction velocity maps, as well as visualizations of action potential and calcium transient duration, S1-S2 protocol analysis, and alternans mapping. The software is built around our recent ‘comb’ algorithm for segmentation of action potentials and calcium transients, offering excellent performance and high resistance to noise. A core feature of our software is that it is based on scripting as opposed to relying on a graphical user interface for user input. The central role of scripts in the analysis pipeline enables batch processing and promotes reproducibility and transparency in the interpretation of large cardiac data sets. Finally, the code is designed to be easily extended, allowing researchers to add functionality if needed. COSMAS is provided in two languages, Matlab and Python, and is distributed with a user guide and sample scripts, so that accessibility to researchers is maximized.


2006 ◽  
Vol 290 (3) ◽  
pp. H1298-H1306 ◽  
Author(s):  
William R. Mills ◽  
Niladri Mal ◽  
Farhad Forudi ◽  
Zoran B. Popovic ◽  
Marc S. Penn ◽  
...  

Late myocardial infarction (MI) is associated with ventricular arrhythmias and sudden cardiac death. The exact mechanistic relationship between abnormal cellular electrophysiology, conduction abnormalities, and arrhythmogenesis associated with late MI is not completely understood. We report a novel, rapid dye superfusion technique to enable whole heart, high-resolution optical mapping of late MI. Optical mapping of action potentials was performed in normal rats and rats with anterior MI 7 days after left anterior descending artery ligation. Hearts from normal rats exhibited normal action potentials and impulse conduction. With the use of programmed stimulation to assess arrhythmia inducibility, 29% of hearts with late MI had inducible sustained ventricular tachycardia, compared with 0% in normal rats. A causal relationship between the site of infarction, abnormal action potential conduction (i.e., block and slow conduction), and arrhythmogenesis was observed. Optical mapping techniques can be used to measure high-resolution action potentials in a whole heart model of late MI. This experimental model reproduces many of the electrophysiological characteristics (i.e., conduction slowing, block, and ventricular tachycardia) associated with MI in patients. Importantly, the results of this study can enhance our ability to understand the interplay between cellular heterogeneity, conduction abnormalities, and arrhythmogenesis associated with MI.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gwendolin Schoenfeld ◽  
Stefano Carta ◽  
Peter Rupprecht ◽  
Aslı Ayaz ◽  
Fritjof Helmchen

Neuronal population activity in the hippocampal CA3 subfield is implicated in cognitive brain functions such as memory processing and spatial navigation. However, because of its deep location in the brain, the CA3 area has been difficult to target with modern calcium imaging approaches. Here, we achieved chronic two-photon calcium imaging of CA3 pyramidal neurons with the red fluorescent calcium indicator R-CaMP1.07 in anesthetized and awake mice. We characterize CA3 neuronal activity at both the single-cell and population level and assess its stability across multiple imaging days. During both anesthesia and wakefulness, nearly all CA3 pyramidal neurons displayed calcium transients. Most of the calcium transients were consistent with a high incidence of bursts of action potentials, based on calibration measurements using simultaneous juxtacellular recordings and calcium imaging. In awake mice, we found state-dependent differences with striking large and prolonged calcium transients during locomotion. We estimate that trains of >30 action potentials over 3 s underlie these salient events. Their abundance in particular subsets of neurons was relatively stable across days. At the population level, we found that coactivity within the CA3 network was above chance level and that co-active neuron pairs maintained their correlated activity over days. Our results corroborate the notion of state-dependent spatiotemporal activity patterns in the recurrent network of CA3 and demonstrate that at least some features of population activity, namely coactivity of cell pairs and likelihood to engage in prolonged high activity, are maintained over days.


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