Vogler Georg, Ocorr Karen
Development and Aging Program, The Burnham Institute for Medical Research.
J Vis Exp. 2009 Sep 28(31):1425. doi: 10.3791/1425.
The Drosophila heart has recently emerged as a good model system for examining the genetic, cellular, and molecular mechanisms underlying function in myogenic hearts. A key step in examining heart function in the fly is finding a way to access the heart in a manner that preserves its myogenic function while still allowing the beating heart organ to be observed and recorded. Two different methods for observing and recording the beating heart in both larva and adult Drosophila are described here. Our semi-intact preparation using adult flies allows clear visualization of the abdominal heart without interference from the pigmented cuticle and overlying fat bodies. To record larval heart beats it is necessary to immobilize the larva, which minimizes body wall movements thereby reducing heart movements that are not associated with myocardial contractions. Our methodologies produce stable adult and larval heart preparations that can beat for hours at rates of 1-3 Hz.
果蝇心脏最近已成为一个很好的模型系统，用于研究肌源性心脏功能背后的遗传、细胞和分子机制。在果蝇中研究心脏功能的一个关键步骤是找到一种方法，以一种既能保留其肌源性功能，又能观察和记录跳动心脏器官的方式来接触心脏。本文描述了两种在幼虫和成年果蝇中观察和记录跳动心脏的不同方法。我们使用成年果蝇的半完整制备方法可以清晰地观察腹部心脏，而不受色素沉着的表皮和覆盖的脂肪体的干扰。为了记录幼虫的心跳，有必要固定幼虫，这将身体壁运动减至最小，从而减少与心肌收缩无关的心脏运动。我们的方法产生了稳定的成年和幼虫心脏制剂，它们可以以1-3赫兹的频率跳动数小时。
