Patterning and excitability control in cardiomyocyte tissue culture

Cardiomyocyte tissue culture allows visualization of excitation waves with the aid of potential-sensitive and Ca++-sensitive dyes similar to experiments with the real heart tissue, but it provides much lower level of intrinsic complexity. It also offers a tool to create desirable structure of the tissue: geometry, controllable inhomogeneities, gradients, etc. In our study we show the ways to create patterned tissue and experimental examples of the processes of origination of spiral waves in cultured cardiomyocytes. We also show the method to control the excitation waves in the cardiomyocyte tissue by adding the AzoTAB and varying the wavelength and intensity of illumination.