Cookies on this website

We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you click 'Accept all cookies' we'll assume that you are happy to receive all cookies and you won't see this message again. If you click 'Reject all non-essential cookies' only necessary cookies providing core functionality such as security, network management, and accessibility will be enabled. Click 'Find out more' for information on how to change your cookie settings.

Cardiac stimulation via sympathetic neurons can potentially trigger arrhythmias. We present approaches to study neuron-cardiomyocyte interactions involving optogenetic selective probing and all-optical electrophysiology to measure activity in an automated fashion. Here we demonstrate the utility of optical interrogation of sympathetic neurons and their effects on macroscopic cardiomyocyte network dynamics to address research targets such as the effects of adrenergic stimulation via the release of neurotransmitters, the effect of neuronal numbers on cardiac behavior, and the applicability of optogenetics in mechanistic in vitro studies. As arrhythmias are emergent behaviors that involve the coordinated activity of millions of cells, we image at macroscopic scales to capture complex dynamics. We show that neurons can both decrease and increase wave stability and re-entrant activity in culture depending on their induced activity-a finding that may help us understand the often conflicting results seen in experimental and clinical studies.

Original publication

DOI

10.1016/j.isci.2020.101334

Type

Journal article

Journal

iScience

Publication Date

24/07/2020

Volume

23

Keywords

Neuroscience, Optical Imaging, Techniques in Neuroscience