Determination of impulse conduction characteristics at a microscopic scale in patterned growth heart cell cultures...

It is well established that impulse propagation in cardiac tissue is determined by the interaction between active membrane properties and the passive electrical characteristics of the network formed by individual myocytes. In the past, the intricate microarchitecture of intact cardiac tissue and the limited spatial resolution of available recording techniques had rendered a systematic evaluation of the influence of the cellular microarchitecture on impulse propagation difficult. Recently, however, successful efforts have been undertaken to: (1) simplify the cellular arrangement by designing cardiac structures with defined two-dimensional geometries; and (2) measure impulse propagation in these preparations at the cellular/subcellular scale using optical techniques. This short review considers both of these developments, i.e., patterned growth of heart cells in culture and multiple site optical recording of transmembrane voltage (MSORTV), and summarizes first results obtained with the combination of both techniques.