Annals of Biomedical Engineering: New Technology Helps Study Heart Tissue Function

, July 2, 2020 /PRNewswire/ ---, biophysicists at the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology and their colleagues have proposed a simple way to observe heart tissueCompared with the analogues currently in use, the new method is cheaper and produces more independent results than the analogues currently in useThe study was published in the journal Annals of Biomedical Engineeringheart tissue is a special muscleWhen the excitation wave travels through it, this causes the constituent fibers to contractThe excitation waves coordinate the work of the heart chamber to ensure that the organs are working properly(photo:many heart diseases, including arrhythmia, are associated with interrupts in excitation wave conduction or some special mechanism of transmissionThat's why it's important to conduct basic research on the mechanisms of excitation wave transmission in the heartThese studies provide insight into how heart function, arrhythmia occurs, and how various drugs and substances affect heart tissue processesOne of the main ways to observe excitation wavesis optical mappingIt involves the use of fluorescent dyes to visually stimulate the spread of excitation in heart tissueMonitor the process with a sensitive camera and then analyze the resulting dataOptical mapping has some drawbacksOn the one hand, dyes and cameras for this technology are quite expensiveAnother drawback is that dyes may interact with the drug, thus interfering with the experiment Dyes also affect cells in samples of heart tissue, reducing their lifespan "We found that if heart tissue cultures were cultured on an elastic substrate made of dimethyl siloxane, the spread of the waves could be observed with a microscope and no dyes were needed," said Konstantin Guria, a senior researcher at the MIPT Laboratory Konstantin Agladze commented, "We've come up with a simpler and cheaper way than a regular mapping." In other words, the greater competitive advantage lies in ensuring that the substance being analyzed does not interact with the dye because it is redundant for visualization "
new method can be used to test the various processes in tissue cultures grown from stem cells This process is automated and suitable for longer observation times than a process that relies on regular mapping (Bio Valley Bioon.com) source: Scientists Gentle To Study Tissue Heart function original source: Viktor A Balashov et al, Thin for Films Label-Free Mapping of Expag Propagation in Cardiac Tissue, Annals of Biomedical (2020) DOI: 10.1007/s10439-020-02513-0