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Ventricular Strips (ventricular + strip)
Selected AbstractsLack of Effect of Conduction Direction on Action Potential Durations in Anisotropic Ventricular Strips of Pig HeartJOURNAL OF CARDIOVASCULAR ELECTROPHYSIOLOGY, Issue 4 2002GUILLERMO BERTRAN B.Sc. Anisotropy and Repolarization.Introduction: The influence of activation sequence on the rate of rise of the depolarization phase of action potentials in atrial or ventricular muscles has been well established. However, whether myocardial fiber orientation is important in modulating the repolarization process is unclear. Methods and Results: We examined the influence of activation sequence on the repolarization phase of action potentials in epicardial tissues from the right and left ventricles of domestic pigs. Whereas cells from the right ventricle exhibited direction-dependent differences in action potential duration at 30%, 50%, and 90% of full repolarization (190.6 ± 31.1 msec vs 181.8 ± 32.8 msec, 240.3 ± 23.5 msec vs 236.7 ± 25.4 msec, and 291.3 ± 23.7 msec vs 287.4 ± 25.1 msec for longitudinal and transverse propagation, respectively; P < 0.001), a similar duration of repolarization during both directions of propagation was observed in cells from the left ventricle at 50% and 90% of full repolarization (241.4 ± 39.4 msec and 285.5 ± 39.5 msec vs 240.4 ± 38.9 msec and 284.9 ± 39.6 msec for longitudinal and transverse propagation respectively; P = NS). A slight but significant difference was found at 30% of full repolarization in cells from the left ventricle (190.4 ± 39.0 msec vs 187.0 ± 38.0 msec for longitudinal and transverse propagation, respectively; P < 0.05). In the left ventricle, the duration of repolarization did not change as the distance between the recording site and stimulation site increased. Conclusion: The direction of wavefront propagation with respect to fiber orientation may not play an important role in modulating the duration of repolarization in epicardial cells from the left ventricle. [source] Different sensitivity of isoprenaline-induced responses in ventricular muscle to sodium nitroprusside in normotensive and spontaneously hypertensive rats 1AUTONOMIC & AUTACOID PHARMACOLOGY, Issue 2 2000A. M. Manso 1 The aim of the present work was to study the possible modulatory role of nitric oxide (NO) on the positive inotropic effect induced by the ,-adrenoceptor agonist isoprenaline in myocardial contractility, and whether this modulation is altered by hypertension. 2 The study was performed using right ventricular strips from the hearts of 6-month-old male Wistar,Kyoto (WKY) rats and spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR). The contractile force of electrically-stimulated ventricular strips was measured by a force-displacement transducer. 3 Isoprenaline (from 10 nmol l,1 to 10 ,mol l,1) induced a concentration-dependent increase in cardiac contractility in strips from both rat strains. This positive inotropic effect to isoprenaline was reduced by the NO donor sodium nitroprusside (SNP, 0.1 mmol l,1) in muscles from WKY rats and slightly increased in those from SHR. The SNP-induced increase in strips from SHR was abolished by superoxide dismutase (100 U ml,1). 4 NG-nitro-arginine-methyl ester (L-NAME, 0.1 mmol l,1) and 1H-[1,2,4]oxadiazolo[4,3]quinoxalin-1-one (ODQ, 10 ,mol l,1), respective inhibitors of NO synthase and guanylate cyclase, increased the response to isoprenaline in muscles from WKY rats, whereas it was unaltered in strips from SHR. 5 In strips from WKY rats, the combination of ODQ and SNP produced an increase in the response elicited by isoprenaline, which was similar to that observed with ODQ or L-NAME. 8-Br-cyclicGMP (8-Br-cGMP, 0.1 mmol l,1), a permeable and structural cGMP analogue, decreased the effect induced by isoprenaline only in muscles from WKY rats. 6 These results suggest that the positive inotropic response to isoprenaline in ventricular strips from WKY rats is negatively modulated by NO, and positively by superoxide anions in those from SHR. The lack of a modulatory response to NO in ventricular strips from SHR is probably a result of an alteration of mechanisms in NO-signalling pathway downstream of cGMP formation in SHR hearts. [source] Characterization of two Bunodosoma granulifera toxins active on cardiac sodium channelsBRITISH JOURNAL OF PHARMACOLOGY, Issue 6 2001Cyril Goudet Two sodium channel toxins, BgII and BgIII, have been isolated and purified from the sea anemone Bunodosoma granulifera. Combining different techniques, we have investigated the electrophysiological properties of these toxins. We examined the effect of BgII and BgIII on rat ventricular strips. These toxins prolong action potentials with EC50 values of 60 and 660 nM and modify the resting potentials. The effect on Na+ currents in rat cardiomyocytes was studied using the patch-clamp technique. BgII and BgIII slow the rapid inactivation process and increase the current density with EC50 values of 58 and 78 nM, respectively. On the cloned hH1 cardiac Na+ channel expressed in Xenopus laevis oocytes, BgII and BgIII slow the inactivation process of Na+ currents (respective EC50 values of 0.38 and 7.8 ,M), shift the steady-state activation and inactivation parameters to more positive potentials and the reversal potential to more negative potentials. The amino acid sequences of these toxins are almost identical except for an asparagine at position 16 in BgII which is replaced by an aspartic acid in BgIII. In all experiments, BgII was more potent than BgIII suggesting that this conservative residue is important for the toxicity of sea anemone toxins. We conclude that BgII and BgIII, generally known as neurotoxins, are also cardiotoxic and combine the classical effects of sea anemone Na+ channels toxins (slowing of inactivation kinetics, shift of steady-state activation and inactivation parameters) with a striking decrease on the ionic selectivity of Na+ channels. British Journal of Pharmacology (2001) 134, 1195,1206; doi:10.1038/sj.bjp.0704361 [source] |