A Complete and Low-Cost Cardiac Optical Mapping System in Translational Animal Models.

Manuel Marina-Breysse,José M Alfonso-Almazán,Gabriel Reale-Nosei,Leslie M Loew,Alba García-Escolano,Jorge G Quintanilla,Peter Lee,Joaquín Vila-García,Ping Yan,David Filgueiras-Rama

doi:10.3389/fphys.2021.696270

Abstract

Clinicians, biologists, physicists, engineers, and computer scientists are coming together to better understand heart disease, which is currently the leading cause of death globally. Optical mapping, a high-speed fluorescence imaging technique that visualizes and measures key cardiac parameters such as action potentials, cytosolic calcium transients, and fibrillation dynamics, is a core research tool that has arisen from such interdisciplinary collaborations. In an effort to broaden its use, especially among clinical scientists and students, we developed a complete and low-cost optical mapping system, including a constant-flow Langendorff perfusion system, which minimizes the economic threshold to widespread use of this powerful tool in cardiac electrophysiology research. The system described here provides high spatiotemporal resolution data about action potentials, intracellular calcium transients and fibrillation wave dynamics in isolated Langendorff-perfused hearts (pigs and rabbits), relevant for translational research. All system components and software elements are fully disclosed with the aim of increasing the use of this affordable and highly versatile tool among clinicians, basic scientists and students wishing to tackle their own research questions with their own customizable systems.

Highlights

In cardiac electrophysiology and drug testing, optical mapping is a core tool used at an intermediate experimental stage between basic molecular analyses and the clinic, motivating further investigations at the molecular level and in vivo
Optical mapping of transmembrane voltage was performed in two rabbit and two pig hearts, while optical mapping of free intracellular calcium transients was performed in one rabbit heart
We have described a complete and fully operational low-cost optical mapping system that can be implemented and used by clinicians, students, and scientists without expertise in the field

Summary

Introduction

In cardiac electrophysiology and drug testing, optical mapping is a core tool used at an intermediate experimental stage between basic molecular analyses and the clinic, motivating further investigations at the molecular level and in vivo. This becomes more clinically relevant with the use of animal models with translational value (Lee et al, 2017; Quintanilla et al, 2019). Clinicians and students new to the field often have limited access to an optical mapping system, typically a shared resource, because damaging components may jeopardize ongoing and future experiments

Methods

Results

Conclusion