Abstract
Recent data, obtained primarily with confocal microscopy of intracellular calcium ions ([Ca2+]i) is leading to a new conception of excitation-contraction (E-C) coupling [1,2] in mammalian heart. With confocal microscopy, spatially localized, subcellular, changes in intracellular calcium concentration ([Ca2+]i) can be seen, either as spontaneous calcium ‘sparks’ [3 or as local [Ca2+]i-transients evoked during voltage-clamp [4] or action potentials [3]. The new concept of E-C coupling that is emerging from these studies is that calcium transients in whole cells are the result of the spatial and temporal summation (or ‘recruitment’) of local calcium transients that are rather stereotyped events.KeywordsSpatial AverageRyanodine ReceptorImage AreaTemporal SummationMammalian HeartThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.
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