OptoGap is an optogenetics-enabled assay for quantification of cell-cell coupling in multicellular cardiac tissue.

摘要: Intercellular electrical coupling is an essential means of communication between cells. It important to obtain quantitative knowledge such cardiomyocytes and non-excitable cells when, for example, pathological myofibroblasts yields increased arrhythmia risk or during the integration donor (e.g., cardiac progenitor) with native in cell-therapy approaches. Currently, there no direct method assessing heterocellular within multicellular tissue. Here we demonstrate experimentally computationally a new contactless assay coupling, OptoGap, based on selective illumination inexcitable that express optogenetic actuators optical sensing response coupled excitable cardiomyocytes) are light-insensitive. Cell-cell quantified by energy required elicit action potential via junctional current from light-stimulated cell(s). The proposed technique validated against standard indirect approach, GapFRAP, using light-sensitive fibroblasts non-transformed two-dimensional setting. Its applicability complex three-dimensional setting heart corroborated computational modelling proper calibration. Lastly, sensitivity OptoGap intrinsic cell-scale excitability robustly characterized analysis.