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Nico Scherf, Michael Weber, Michaela Mickoleit, Benjamin Schmid, Jan Huisken (Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics, Dresden, Germany)
The rhythmic beating of the heart ensures a continuous blood stream and oxygen supply for the living organism. The contraction of heart cells is orchestrated by waves of electrical signals spreading over the heart. How is this signaling organized as a functional network of heart cells? To gain deeper insight it is necessary to study the conduction patterns in vivo under physiological conditions. The small and transparent zebrafish as a model organism and fluorescent light sheet microscopy (SPIM) are the perfect combination to study this phenomenon. The zebrafish heart beats deep inside the body at a fast pace (2-4 Hz). Thus, fast volumetric in vivo imaging is a prerequisite. This is delivered by SPIM with minimal photo-toxicity and bleaching. We use a fish line with a fluorescent reporter to visualize the calcium dynamics of the conduction. Short movies are recorded across the entire heart. The volumetric movie is reconstructed by computational methods to synchronize the planar data. Probabilistic regression yields a clean signal estimate with a confidence measure. Enhanced volume and surface visualizations highlight different characteristics of the spreading calcium waves.http://www.mpi-cbg.de/de/research/research-groups/jan-huisken.html