title: Assessment of contractility in intact ventricular cardiomyocytes using the dimensionless 'Frank-Starling Gain' index.
abstract: This paper briefly recapitulates the Frank-Starling law of the heart, reviews approaches to establishing diastolic and systolic force-length behaviour in intact isolated cardiomyocytes, and introduces a dimensionless index called 'Frank-Starling Gain', calculated as the ratio of slopes of end-systolic and end-diastolic force-length relations. The benefits and limitations of this index are illustrated on the example of regional differences in Guinea pig intact ventricular cardiomyocyte mechanics. Potential applicability of the Frank-Starling Gain for the comparison of cell contractility changes upon stretch will be discussed in the context of intra- and inter-individual variability of cardiomyocyte properties.
authors.affiliation: Cardiac Biophysics and Systems Biology, The National Heart and Lung Institute, Imperial College, London, UK. c.bollensdorff@imperial.ac.uk
authors.forename: Christian
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Bollensdorff
authors.forename: Oleg
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Lookin
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Kohl
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D008955:Models, Cardiovascular; D009200:Myocardial Contraction / Q000502:physiology*; D032383:Myocytes, Cardiac / Q000166:cytology / Q000502:physiology*; D013314:Stress, Mechanical