Functional roles of sodium-calcium exchange in autorhythmicity and action potential of murine fetal cardiomyocytes at early developmental stage.

The aim of the present paper was to study the role of sodium calcium exchanger (NCX) in the generation of action potentials (APs) in cardiomyocytes during early developmental stage (EDS). The precisely dated embryonic hearts of C57 mice were dissected and enzymatically dissociated to single cells. The changes of APs were recorded by whole-cell patch-clamp technique before and after administration of NCX specific blockers KB-R7943 (5 μmol/L) and SEA0400 (1 μmol/L).

Cardiac fibroblast paracrine factors modulate mouse embryonic stem cells.

The study aims to investigate the effects of cardiac fibroblast (CF) paracrine factors on murine embryonic stem cells (ESCs). Conditioned mediums from either neonatal cardiac fibroblasts (ConM-NCF) or adult cardiac fibroblasts (ConM-ACF) were diluted by 1:50 and 1:5, respectively, to investigate whether these conditioned mediums impact murine ESCs distinctly with RT-real time PCR techniques, cell proliferation essay, ELISA and by counting percentage of beating embryoid bodies (EBs) during ESCs differentiation. The data showed that the paracrine ability of CFs changed dramatically during development, in which interleukin 6 (IL6) increased with maturation.

Long Term Perinatal Deltamethrin Exposure Alters Electrophysiological Properties of Embryonic Ventricular Cardiomyocyte.

Increased use of pyrethroids and the exposure to pyrethroids for pregnant women and children have raised the concerns over the potential effect of pyrethroids on developmental cardiotoxicity and other abnormalities. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether long term perinatal deltamethrin exposure altered embryonic cardiac electrophysiology in mice. Pregnant mice were administered with 0 or 3 mg/kg of deltamethrin by gavage daily from gestational day (gd) 10.