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Preparing Excitable Cardiac Papillary Muscle and Cardiac Slices for Functional Analyses.

Drs. Bradley Palmer and Stephen Bell describe dissection, preparation, and functional analysis of cardiac papillary muscle and cardiac slices.

Cardiac slices better preserve the native myocardial tissue, including both fibroblasts and myocytes. And unlike whole heart studies, slices are better suited for acquisition of functional parameters like calcium transients. Unlike both models, however, cardiac slices have not been widely utilized and their preparation remains a significant challenge for many labs.

Published in Frontiers in Physiology, the authors provide a comprehensive guide to papillary muscle and cardiac slice preparation, including solutions, dissection of tissue from the surrounding heart, trimming and slicing tissue, and mounting tissue for examination. The authors also touch on data acquisition, including stimulation parameters and muscle tensioning.

Key Topics Include:

  • Dissection of papillary muscle and cardiac slices from rat heart
  • Solutions recipes for dissection and recording
  • Preparation of tissue for functional analysis
  • Data acquisition setup and considerations

Palmer BM and Bell SP (2022) Preparing Excitable Cardiac Papillary Muscle and Cardiac Slices for Functional Analyses. Front. Physiol. 13:817205. doi: 10.3389/fphys.2022.817205