Cooper Ann S, Rymond Kylah E, Ward Matthew A, Bocook Easter L, Cooper Robin L
Department of Biology, University of Kentucky, Lexington.
J Vis Exp. 2009 Nov 16(33):1596. doi: 10.3791/1596.
We present various methods to record cardiac function in the larval Drosophila. The approaches allow heart rate to be measured in unrestrained and restrained whole larvae. For direct control of the environment around the heart another approach utilizes the dissected larvae and removal of the internal organs in order to bathe the heart in desired compounds. The exposed heart also allows membrane potentials to be monitored which can give insight of the ionic currents generated by the myocytes and for electrical conduction along the heart tube. These approaches have various advantages and disadvantages for future experiments that are discussed. The larval heart preparation provides an additional model besides the Drosophila skeletal NMJ to investigate the role of intracellular calcium regulation on cellular function. Learning more about the underlying ionic currents that shape the action potentials in myocytes in various species, one can hope to get a handle on the known ionic dysfunctions associated to specific genes responsible for various diseases in mammals.
我们展示了多种记录果蝇幼虫心脏功能的方法。这些方法能够在未受束缚和受束缚的完整幼虫中测量心率。为了直接控制心脏周围的环境，另一种方法是利用解剖后的幼虫并去除内部器官，以便将心脏浸泡在所需的化合物中。暴露的心脏还能监测膜电位，这有助于深入了解心肌细胞产生的离子电流以及沿心管的电传导情况。对于未来的实验，这些方法各有优缺点，本文将进行讨论。除了果蝇骨骼肌神经肌肉接头外，幼虫心脏标本为研究细胞内钙调节对细胞功能的作用提供了另一个模型。通过更多地了解塑造各种物种心肌细胞动作电位的潜在离子电流，人们有望掌握与哺乳动物各种疾病相关的特定基因所导致的已知离子功能障碍。
