The cultured myocardial cells as a model in cardiac research

Cultured myocardial cells have become a standard tool in experimental cardiology. Advantages of this model are pointed out, and some of the results obtained demonstrate the usefulness of this model for investigations of contractile, biochemical, and electrophysiological parameters. The first report on cultivated heart cells was published 75 years ago by BURROWS. He described the independent pulsatory activity of single cells grown out of a tissue explant. This observation confirmed the old view that the cell and not a syncytium acts as the elementary structural and functional unit of heart muscle. More than 40 years later RINALDINI (1954) and CAVANOUGH (1955) succeeded in isolating discrete single cells from embryonic avian heart tissue and HARARY (1963) from postnatal mammalian heart muscle by means of proteolytic enzymes (for review see 1). Today myocardial cells in primary culture can be kept alive and physiologically active for several weeks, but there exist not yet a permanent line of cardiac muscle cells with specific attributes of excitability and contractility. Cultivated myocardial cells have become a standard tool in experimental cardiology during the last 10 to 15 years. They provide a model system to study problems of development, differentiation, adaptation, and regulation of metabolism and function. This model affords unique advantages as compared to intact myocardium for solving some of these problems.