Nature Sub-Journal: Simultaneous optical and electrical tracking of heart activity

The extent to which the interaction between different types of heart cells affects normal heart rhythm and may trigger life-threatening arrhythmias is still elusive

The normal function of the heart is based on the electrical impulses ("action potentials") produced by the pacemaker.

In order to conduct a comprehensive optogenetic study of the heart, researchers led by Stephan Rohr of the Department of Physiology at the University of Bern developed a new experimental system called the "Panoramic Photoelectric Measurement and Stimulation (POEMS)" system

Connective tissue cells are the cause of arrhythmia?

Previous cell culture experiments have shown that cardiomyocytes communicate with activated fibroblasts through electrical signals, and this interaction leads to arrhythmia

Currently, optogenetics solves the problem of the lack of appropriate experimental methods.

Poetry system creates new possibilities

The lead author of the study, Professor Stephan Rohr, explained: “With our poem system, all these shortcomings are overcome because the entire surface of the ventricle is covered with photoelectric measurement and stimulation sites, which allows the free combination of the two modes

Using the stimulated mouse heart expressing optogenetic voltage, simultaneous optical and electrical panoramic measurement of cardiac activation, the results show that regardless of the measurement method, the consistency and highly accurate measurement of ventricular action potential propagation, the activation time determined by light and electricity The difference between is less than one millisecond

Stephan Rohr said: "With the POEMS system in place, we are currently investigating an urgent question whether arrhythmia can also be caused by non-muscle cells, such as activated connective tissue cells

DOI

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Enabling comprehensive optogenetic studies of mouse hearts by simultaneous opto-electrical panoramic mapping and stimulation