Autoregulation of excitation-Ca2+ signaling-contraction in cardiomyocyte under mechanical load

Abstract

The heart pumps blood into circulation against the mechanical load from vascular resistance andactively regulate the cardiac muscle contraction to compensate for load changes. To decipher theunderlying mechanisms, we developed a Cell-in-Gel technology to investigate the mechano-chemo-transduction (MCT) mechanisms that transduce mechanical load to biochemical signalsto regulate the cardiomyocyte contraction. Our experimental studies reveal that MCT regulateseach of the dynamic systems involved in cardiac excitation-Ca2+ signaling-contraction (E-C)coupling.