Depolarization of Cellular Resting Membrane Potential Promotes Neonatal Cardiomyocyte Proliferation In Vitro.

ABSTRACT: Cardiomyocytes (CMs) undergo a rapid transition from hyperplastic to hypertrophic growth soon after birth, which is a major challenge to the development of engineered cardiac tissue for pediatric patients. Resting membrane potential (V_mem) has been shown to play an important role in cell differentiation and proliferation during development. We hypothesized that depolarization of neonatal CMs would stimulate or maintain CM proliferation in vitro. To test our hypothesis, we isolated postnatal day 3 neonatal rat CMs and subjected them to sustained depolarization via the addition of potassium gluconate or Ouabain to the culture medium. Cell density and CM percentage measurements demonstrated an increase in mitotic CMs along with a ~2 fold increase in CM numbers with depolariz

SUBMITTER: Lan JY 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4185190 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature