CONTRACTILE APPARATUS ORGANIZATION OF CARDIOMYOCYTES
UPON THEIR CULTIVATION IN COLLAGEN GELS
N.B. Bildjug,1 N.M. Yudintseva, G.P. Pinaev
Institute of Cytology RAS, St. Petersburg;
1 e-mail: relapse@yandex.ru
Cardiomyocytes are known to change their morphology and reorganize the contractile apparatus upon their
culturing in 2D culture systems. Therefore, the monolayer cardiomyocyte cultures appear to be a poor model
for studying of the biologically important processes in the heart. Present study relates to the searching for the
most optimal culture conditions allowing cardiomyocytes to maintein their typical morphology and the native
state of contractile apparatus. In this study, we investigated organization of the contractile apparatus of cardiomyocytes
when cultured in 3D collagen gels of different density. It has been shown that cardiomyocytes preserve
the initial organization of their contractile apparatus during prolonged cultivation in collagen gels at a concentration
of 1 mg/ml, whereas partial reorganization of their contractile apparatus is observed at a concentration
of 0.5 and 1.5 mg/ml. Thus, cardiomyocytes placed in 3D collagen gels with a protein concentration of
1 mg/ml could be considered as a culture be model which approximates to the natural conditions.
Key words: extracellular matrix (ECM), cardiomyocytes (CMC), collagen gel, contractile apparatus
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