Rhythmic beating of stem cell-derived cardiac cells requires dynamic coupling of electrophysiology and Ca cycling.

ABSTRACT: There is an intense interest in differentiating embryonic stem cells to engineer biological pacemakers as an alternative to electronic pacemakers for patients with cardiac pacemaker function deficiency. Embryonic stem cell-derived cardiocytes (ESCs), however, often exhibit dysrhythmic excitations. Using Ca(2+) imaging and patch-clamp techniques, we studied requirements for generation of spontaneous rhythmic action potentials (APs) in late-stage mouse ESCs. Sarcoplasmic reticulum (SR) of ESCs generates spontaneous, rhythmic, wavelet-like Local Ca(2+)Releases (LCRs) (inhibited by ryanodine, tetracaine, or thapsigargin). L-type Ca(2+)current (I(CaL)) induces a global Ca(2+) release (CICR), depleting the Ca(2+) content SR which resets the phases of LCR oscillators. Following a delay, SR then g

SUBMITTER: Zahanich I 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3018669 | biostudies-literature | 2011 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature