Intracellular osmotic gradient generation in rat ventricle myocyte by using a micro-perfusion system.

This experimental study describes the fabrication and analysis of a micro-perfusion system that can be used in many bioengineering experiments to create rapid, large regional intracellular changes within single ventricular myocytes. The myocyte was a kind of osmometer since the cell volume was found to be strongly dependent on the perfusion solution osmolarity. This volume change was measured, indirectly, by measuring the cell width change using video-microscopy and image analysis software. Jacob's equation was used to model these results successfully. Some dual perfusion experiments to see the effects of the localized perfusion of different osmotic solutions to generate an osmotic gradient inside myocytes were also investigated. This device can be useful for studying the effects of localized pH or osmotic gradients inside myocytes, estimating intracellular ion diffusion rates, and inducing regional changes in other important intracellular ions.