P.I. Dr. Bonnie Punske
A laboratory dedicated to the study of the electrical activity of small hearts has been established at The Nora Eccles Harrison Cardiovascular Research and Training Institute (CVRTI). Microelectrode arrays are used to record epicardial potential maps from the ventricular suface of isolated, Langendorff perfused mouse hearts. Propagation of activation can be studied in normal hearts and in genetically altered models of heart disease.
The animation above shows the potential distribution on the anterior left ventricle of a mouse heart after stimulation from near the lower right corner of the array. The array consists of 64 electrode sites arranged in nonuniform 8 by 8 grid with approximate interelectrode spacing of 0.5 mm and 0.3 mm.
Map3d was used for graphic display of the potentials.