Abstract
We present a non-invasive technique for the characterization of contractile behaviors of cardiomyocytes, based on the high-speed video imaging and the analysis using motion vector prediction (MVP) algorithm (1). With this method, we could detect contraction and relaxation motions of cardiomyocytes separately, and could obtain quantitative information on contractile behaviors of cardiomyocytes, such as the beating rate, contraction/relaxation velocity, orientation of contraction, beating cooperativity/homogeneity in the monolayer, and propagation of contraction wave in the monolayers. Furthermore, the effects of drugs that will alter inotropism and chronotropism of cardiomyocytes (e.g., autonomic agents, gap junction inhibitors, ion channel blockers) were clearly detected. Since this method could sensitively evaluate the contractile behavior of cardiomyocytes without using any labeling or specialized culture dishes, it may be used to study and/or monitor cardiomyocyte during prolonged culture periods and in screens for drugs that may alter the contraction of cardiomyocytes. At the meeting, we will show the details of this method and discuss the correlation between the motion pattern of contraction/relaxation and extracellular field potential parameters, evaluated for human-induced pluripotent stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes.
(1) Hayakawa, T. et al., “Non-invasive evaluation of contractile behavior of cardiomyocyte monolayers based on motion vector analysis.” Tissue Eng Part C Methods, 2012, 18, 21 - 32.
