Search

Calcium (Ca(2+)) is a crucial intracellular messenger in physiological aspects of cell signaling. Adrenal chromaffin cells are the secretory cells from the adrenal gland medulla that secrete catecholamines, which include epinephrine and norepinephrine important in the 'fight or flight' response. Bovine adrenal chromaffin cells have long been used as an important model for secretion -(exocytosis) not only due to their importance in the short-term stress response, but also as a neuroendocrine model of neurotransmtter release, as they have all the same exocytotic proteins as neurons but are easier to prepare, culture and use in functional assays. The components of the Ca(2+) signal transduction cascade and it role in secretion has been extensively characterized in bovine adrenal chromaffin cells. The Ca(2+) sources, signaling molecules and how this relates to the short-term stress response are reviewed in this book chapter in an endeavor to generally -overview these mechanisms in a concise and uncomplicated manner.

A non-invasive method for assessing regional myocardial work is presented. The method utilizes tagged magnetic resonance images (MRI) obtained from two sets of orthogonal planes to mark and reconstruct 24 small myocardial cuboids at end-diastole (ED) and end-systole (ES) in the in vivo left ventricle (LV). Regional myocardial work is assessed by calculating the area enclosed by the endocardial wall tension-area (T-A) loop of each studied cuboid. The method was applied to six normal canine hearts. In addition, a global myocardial work index was obtained from the corresponding estimated pressure-volume (P-V) loops. The average work index calculated using the T-A loop was 0.242 +/- 0.088 J/100gr/beat, in agreement with the average index obtained from the P-V loop: 0.296 +/- 0.089 J/100gr/beat. The two indices correlate linearly with a correlation coefficient of 0.82.

Quantification of myocardial strains is essential for understanding cardiac mechanics. Previous techniques for assessing regional myocardial strains have been mainly limited to invasive procedures. A technique by which tagging can be added to magnetic resonance images (MRI) has recently been introduced and allows for noninvasive measurement of myocardial deformations. We have applied MRI tagging to two sets of orthogonal planes and have obtained three dimensional (3D) reconstructions of 24 myocardial cuboids at end-diastole (ED) and at end-systole (ES). Applying finite strain analysis to these cuboids we were able to study the longitudinal distribution of the endocardial and epicardial principal strains (PS) in the normal canine heart. In addition we have calculated the longitudinal distribution of the left ventricular (LV) transmural thickening using a 3D approach. Our results show similarity in the longitudinal distribution of endocardial PS and transmural thickening. These results imply that endocardial strains are determined not only by endocardial fiber deformations but mainly by geometrical coupling through transmural thickening.