Long-term survival of cultured adult rat heart cells

This paper reports several modifications of our previous culture method for adult rat heart cells. Mechanical separation of the cells at 12 rpm rather than 8 rpm doubled the number of beating cells in the final culture medium. A 60% Ficoll-Paque solution was found to be optimal for exclusion of non-muscle cells such as endothelial cells and fibroblasts from the culture, followed by frequent medium exchange to eliminate traces of this reagent from culture medium. However, the presence of some non-muscle cells seemed to exert a positive effect on culture longevity. Eagle's MEM medium containing 20% FBS resulted in maximum (over 50 days) survival of cultures.