Structural and functional plasticity in long-term cultures of adult ventricular myocytes.

ABSTRACT: Cultured heart cells have long been valuable for characterizing biological mechanism and disease pathogenesis. However, these preparations have limitations, relating to immaturity in key properties like excitation-contraction coupling and β-adrenergic stimulation. Progressive attenuation of the latter is intimately related to pathogenesis and therapy in heart failure. Highly valuable would be a long-term culture system that emulates the structural and functional changes that accompany disease and development, while concurrently permitting ready access to underlying molecular events. Accordingly, we here produce functional monolayers of adult guinea-pig ventricular myocytes (aGPVMs) that can be maintained in long-term culture for several weeks. At baseline, these monolayers exhibit consider

SUBMITTER: Joshi-Mukherjee R 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4219275 | biostudies-literature | 2013 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature