Nonenzymatic separation of myocardial cell nuclei from whole heart tissue

A simple and rapid nonenzymatic method has been developed to isolate myocardial cell nuclei from whole heart tissue. This method consists of a controlled disruption of cells followed by isopycnic gradient centrifugation. We have reviewed and compared our method to others more lengthy and laborious. By using a number of criteria, such as morphometric measurements, chemical composition, functional studies, specific nuclear protein markers, and mathematical analysis, we show that the nonenzymatic digestion method provides a most useful technique for the study of the biochemistry of the myocardial cell nucleus.