title: Isolation and characterization of single myocardial cells from the quail, Coturnix coturnix japonica.
abstract: 1. The enzymatic cell isolation technique was applied to the bird heart resulting in myocytes of which 10-50% maintained their spindle-shaped morphology, excluded the vital dye, Evans blue and tolerated physiological concentration of Ca2+ ions. 2. The length of spindle-shaped myocytes was on average 289 +/- 7 microns, and the maximum width was 10.2 +/- 0.3 microns. The mean length of the sarcomeres was 2.18 +/- 0.03 microns. 3. In electron micrographs the fine structure of the spindle-shaped myocytes looked normal--regular sarcomeric organization with clear A and I bands, mitochondria with tightly located cristae and well-developed sarcoplasmic reticulum (SR). 4. Most (80%) of the spindle-shaped myocytes were quiescent in physiological calcium concentration and practically all of them could be induced to twitch by electric field stimulation. Some beat spontaneously showing mostly slowly-propagating (135 +/- 6 microns/sec at 20 degrees C) contraction waves, so-called phasic contractions. Sometimes spontaneous twitch-type contractions could also be seen.
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002469:Cell Separation / Q000379:methods; D003370:Coturnix; D004558:Electric Stimulation; D005260:Female; D006321:Heart / Q000502:physiology; D066298:In Vitro Techniques; D008297:Male; D003012:Microbial Collagenase; D008854:Microscopy, Electron; D009206:Myocardium / Q000166:cytology* / Q000648:ultrastructure
chemical_list: D003012:Microbial Collagenase