Intercellular connections in rabbit heart as revealed by quick-frozen, deep-etched, and rotary-replicated papillary muscle.
Rabbit papillary muscles were ultrarapidly frozen, fractured, deep-etched, and rotary shadowed. These techniques revealed the interstitial space where the complex network of fine microthreads that connect myocytes to each other and to collagen fibrils can be seen in a three-dimensional array similar to scanning electron micrographs but at a resolution attainable in freeze-fracture microscopy.
D000818:Animals; D005109:Extracellular Matrix / Q000648:ultrastructure; D005614:Freeze Fracturing; D007365:Intercellular Junctions / Q000648:ultrastructure*; D008854:Microscopy, Electron; D009206:Myocardium / Q000648:ultrastructure*; D010210:Papillary Muscles / Q000648:ultrastructure; D011817:Rabbits