title: Regular and alternant spiral waves of contractile motion on rat ventricle cell cultures.
abstract: We demonstrate that meandering as well as regular spiral waves can form in a well-controlled culture layer of rat ventricle cells and that the meandering spiral wave, in particular, can generate an alternant rhythm. These observations are made possible by a newly developed, noninvasive phase contrast macro-optics that is simple but highly effective in visualizing the contractile motion of the populations of cardiac cells.
authors.affiliation: National Creative Research Initiative Center for Neuro-dynamics and Department of Physics, Korea University, Seoul 136-701, Korea.
authors.forename: Seong-Min
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Hwang
authors.forename: Kwon-Hae
authors.initials: KH
authors.lastname: Yea
authors.forename: Kyoung J
authors.initials: KJ
authors.lastname: Lee
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D006352:Heart Ventricles / Q000166:cytology; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted / Q000379:methods*; D008858:Microscopy, Phase-Contrast / Q000379:methods*; D009200:Myocardial Contraction / Q000502:physiology*; D055095:Optics and Photonics / Q000295:instrumentation; D051381:Rats; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley; D016276:Ventricular Function