Techniques of Fibroblasts and Cardiomyocytes Co-Cultures for Atrial Fibrillation Studies

Background and Objective: Currently, heart diseases like cardiac arrhythmias are a high public health impact worldwide. One of the most frequent cardiac arrhythmias is atrial fibrillation (AF), a heart condition that causes an irregular and often abnormally fast heart rate. The AF had been linked with atrial fibrosis also, but the cause-effect relationship is not clear yet. This study aimed to simulate the conditions of interaction in atrial fibrosis, through different co-cultured proportions of NIH-3T3 rat fibrotic cells (fibroblasts) and HL-1 rat cardiomyocytes cells.

Materials and Methods: Electrical activity in the cultures was then assessed by optical mapping to study the patterns of action potential propagation between cardiomyocytes, using the voltage-sensitive marker Di-8-ANEPPS.

Results: The cultures were found to be distinguishable within the plates, according to dot and linear patterns performed by parafilm patterns.

Conclusion: Cardiomyocyte’s electrical activity could not be detected in co-cultures, which is necessary to establish the effect of the presence of fibroblasts, whereby studies should be performed with other conditions and measurements to establish possible changes in the patterns.