Isolation and characterization of single myocardial cells from the quail, Coturnix coturnix japonic A

Abstract

1. 1. The enzymatic cell isolation technique was applied to the bird heart resulting in myocytes of which 10–50% maintained their spindle-shaped morphology, excluded the vital dye, Evans blue and tolerated physiological concentration of Ca 2+ ions. 2. 2. The length of spindle-shaped myocytes was on average 289 ± 7 μm, and the maximum width was 10.2 ± 0.3 μm. The mean length of the sarcomeres was 2.18 ± 0.03 μm. 3. 3. In electron micrographs the fine structure of the spindle-shaped myocytes looked normal—regular sarcomeric organization with clear A and I bands, mitochondria with tightly located cristae and well-developed sarcoplasmic reticulum (SR). 4. 4. Most (80%) of the spindle-shaped myocytes were quiescent in physiological calcium concentration and practically all of them could be induced to twitch by electric field stimulation. Some beat spontaneously showing mostly slowly-propagating (135 ± 6 μm/sec at 20°C) contraction waves, so-called phasic contractions. Sometimes spontaneous twitch-type contractions could also be seen.