Abstract
Optogenetics is an emerging method that uses light to manipulate electrical activity in excitable cells exploiting the interaction between light and light-sensitive depolarizing ion channels, such as channelrhodopsin-2 (ChR2). Initially used in the neuroscience, it has been adopted in cardiac research where the expression of ChR2 in cardiac preparations allows optical pacing, resynchronization and defibrillation. Recently, optogenetics has been leveraged to manipulate cardiac electrical activity in the intact heart in real-time. This new approach was applied to simulate a re-entrant circuit across the ventricle. In this technical note, we describe the development and the implementation of a new software package for real-time optogenetic intervention. The package consists of a single LabVIEW program that simultaneously captures images at very high frame rates and delivers precisely timed optogenetic stimuli based on the content of the images. The software implementation guarantees closed-loop optical manipulation at high temporal resolution by processing the raw data in workstation memory. We demonstrate that this strategy allows the simulation of a ventricular tachycardia with high stability and with a negligible loss of data with a temporal resolution of up to 1 ms.
Highlights
Optogenetics is an emerging technique that involves the use of light to control the electrical activity of excitable cells
Optogenetics has been widely extended to cardiac research [4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14]
Several therapeutic approaches based on optogenetics have recently been reported: Nussinovitch and Gepstein [15] described the first use of optogenetics for cardiac resynchronization while other groups [16,17,18,19,20] have demonstrated optical defibrillation of arrhythmic hearts
Summary
Optogenetics is an emerging technique that involves the use of light to control the electrical activity of excitable cells. Several therapeutic approaches based on optogenetics have recently been reported: Nussinovitch and Gepstein [15] described the first use of optogenetics for cardiac resynchronization while other groups [16,17,18,19,20] have demonstrated optical defibrillation of arrhythmic hearts In this context, Crocini and colleagues [19] developed an optical platform that can generate novel stimulation strategies with the aim of developing new cardiac defibrillation strategies: a wide-field mesoscope to map the action potential propagation across perfused mouse hearts was implemented with an ultrafast scanning laser system to manipulate cardiac electrical activity with arbitrarily chosen channelrhodopsin-2 (ChR2) stimulation patterns.
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary 
Published Version (
Free)
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call