Abstract
SPontaneous Oscillatory Contractions, known as SPOCs, are well characterized for skeletal muscle fibers but less so for cardiac muscle. A survey of SPOCs on mammalian hearts from rat to cow showed that, like myosin ATPase activity, SPOC contractions exhibit a linear relationship relative to body size. SPOCs exhibit slow, travelling waves of relaxations that can be induced under precise solvent conditions. These are observed by light microscopy and the time-resolved images are analysed with high spatial and temporal resolution for up to 1 h. Here we examine the functional performance of failing and non-failing human heart samples snap frozen at -200°C (liquid nitrogen) within minutes of clamping the coronary arteries. Thus, it is possible to study the contraction and relaxation of cardiomyocytes from hearts that were also used in transcriptomics studies. With our large bank of frozen human heart tissue we can study the effects of: (1) end-stage heart failure on multiple heart samples from a wide range of patients; and (2) aging on contractile performance using multiple samples of non-failing hearts. We will report preliminary findings from end-stage heart failure patients with familial and non-familial dilated cardiomyopathy, and from un-used donor hearts aged 9-65 years.
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