The automated counting of beating rates in individual cultured heart cells

The effect of drugs on the beating rate of cultured heart cells can be monitored in a number of ways. The simultaneous automated measurement of beating rates of a number of cells allows drug effects to be rapidly quantified. A photoresistive detector placed on a television image of a cell, when coupled to operational amplifiers, gives binary signals that can be processed by a microprocessor. On this basis, we have devised a system that is capable of simultaneously monitoring the individual beating of six single cultured heart cells. A microprocessor automatically processes data obtained under different experimental conditions and records it in suitable descriptive formats such as dose-response curves and double reciprocal plots.