title: Electrotonic coupled metabolic purification of chick cardiomyocytes.
abstract: Cardiomyocytes isolated from chick and rodent are widely used in studying cardiac physiology. However, contaminating non-cardiomyocytes are an inherent problem that hinders downstream analysis. Here, we report a novel electrical stimulation coupled with metabolic selection method using cytosine arabinoside (AraC) to efficiently eliminate contaminating cells in isolating chick embryonic cardiomyocytes. Compared with conventional methods of pre-plating or AraC alone, electrical stimulation coupled with AraC increased the percentage purity of cardiomyocytes by 2-6-fold with added effect of improved contractile function and maturation. This simple method could be useful in isolating and maintaining purified cardiomyocytes for long-term studies of cardiac physiology.
authors.affiliation: Stem Cell Laboratory, National Heart Research Institute Singapore (NHRIS), National Heart Centre Singapore (NHCS), 5 Hospital Drive, 9th Floor, Singapore, 169609, Singapore, winston.shim.s.n@nhcs.com.sg.
authors.forename: Winston
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Shim
authors.forename: Haiyang
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Yu
authors.forename: K P Myu Mai
authors.initials: KP
authors.lastname: Ja
authors.forename: Muhammad
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Parasuram
authors.forename: Kee Pah
authors.initials: KP
authors.lastname: Lim
authors.forename: Philip
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Wong
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D018929:Cell Culture Techniques; D002469:Cell Separation / Q000379:methods*; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D002642:Chick Embryo; D002645:Chickens; D004558:Electric Stimulation; D005455:Fluorescent Antibody Technique; D018613:Microscopy, Confocal; D032383:Myocytes, Cardiac / Q000166:cytology* / Q000378:metabolism*