Dynamic morphology imaging of cardiomyocytes based on AFM

Area of Science:

• Cardiology
• Biophysics
• Cell Biology

Background:

• Cardiomyocytes are the heart's functional units responsible for systolic function.
• Understanding cardiomyocyte contraction and relaxation is crucial for heart physiology and pathology.
• Existing imaging methods struggle to capture dynamic 3D cardiomyocyte behavior.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a method for accurately and dynamically imaging cardiomyocyte contraction and relaxation in 3D.
• To overcome the limitations of optical microscopy (horizontal-only) and atomic force microscopy (slow, single-probe scanning).

Main Methods:

• Proposed a dynamic imaging method leveraging the periodicity of atomic force microscopy (AFM) acquisition and cardiomyocyte contraction.
• Utilized AFM to capture vertical dimensional changes and combined it with the temporal dynamics of contraction.

Main Results:

• The new method successfully represents cardiomyocyte contraction and relaxation processes dynamically in 3D.
• Demonstrated superior performance compared to traditional optical microscopy experiments.
• Effectively addressed the challenge of 3D dynamic imaging of cardiomyocytes.

Conclusions:

• The proposed dynamic imaging method offers a novel approach for studying cardiomyocyte physiology.
• Provides a new tool for AFM-based dynamic imaging research.
• Enhances the understanding of heart function and disease mechanisms at the cellular level.