Visualization of oxygen level inside a single cardiac myocyte

Intra-cardiac Side-Firing Light Catheter for Monitoring Cellular Metabolism using Transmural Absorbance Spectroscopy of Perfused Mammalian Hearts

Absorbance spectroscopy of cardiac muscle provides non-destructive assessment of cytosolic and mitochondrial oxygenation via myoglobin and cytochrome absorbance respectively. In addition, numerous aspects of the mitochondrial metabolic status such as membrane potential and substrate entry can also be estimated. To perform cardiac wall transmission optical spectroscopy, a commercially available side-firing optical fiber catheter is placed in the left ventricle of the isolated perfused heart as a light source. Light passing through the heart wall is collected with an external optical fiber to perform optical spectroscopy of the heart in near real- time. The transmission approach avoids numerous surface scattering interference occurring in widely used reflection approaches. Changes in transmural absorbance spectra were deconvolved using a library of chromophore reference spectra, providing quantitative measures of all the known cardiac chromophores simultaneously. This spectral deconvolution approach eliminated intrinsic errors that may result from using common dual wavelength methods applied to overlapping absorbance spectra, as well as provided a quantitative evaluation of the goodness of fit. A custom program was designed for data acquisition and analysis, which permitted the investigator to monitor the metabolic state of the preparation during the experiment. These relatively simple additions to the standard heart perfusion system provide a unique insight into the metabolic state of the heart wall in addition to conventional measures of contraction, perfusion, and substrate/oxygen extraction.

Intracardiac light catheter for rapid scanning transmural absorbance spectroscopy of perfused myocardium: measurement of myoglobin oxygenation and mitochondria redox state

Absorbance spectroscopy of intrinsic cardiac chromophores provides nondestructive assessment of cytosolic oxygenation and mitochondria redox state. Isolated perfused heart spectroscopy is usually conducted by collecting reflected light from the heart surface, which represents a combination of surface scattering events and light that traversed portions of the myocardium. Reflectance spectroscopy with complex surface scattering effects in the beating heart leads to difficulty in quantitating chromophore absorbance. In this study, surface scattering was minimized and transmural path length optimized by placing a light source within the left ventricular chamber while monitoring transmurally transmitted light at the epicardial surface. The custom-designed intrachamber light catheter was a flexible coaxial cable (2.42-Fr) terminated with an encapsulated side-firing LED of 1.8 × 0.8 mm, altogether similar in size to a Millar pressure catheter. The LED catheter had minimal impact on aortic flow and heart rate in Langendorff perfusion and did not impact stability of the left ventricule of the working heart. Changes in transmural absorbance spectra were deconvoluted using a library of chromophore reference spectra to quantify the relative contribution of specific chromophores to the changes in measured absorbance. This broad-band spectral deconvolution approach eliminated errors that may result from simple dual-wavelength absorbance intensity. The myoglobin oxygenation level was only 82.2 ± 3.0%, whereas cytochrome c and cytochrome a + a₃ were 13.3 ± 1.4% and 12.6 ± 2.2% reduced, respectively, in the Langendorff-perfused heart. The intracardiac illumination strategy permits transmural optical absorbance spectroscopy in perfused hearts, which provides a noninvasive real-time monitor of cytosolic oxygenation and mitochondria redox state.NEW & NOTEWORTHY Here, a novel nondestructive real-time approach for monitoring intrinsic indicators of cardiac metabolism and oxygenation is described using a catheter-based transillumination of the left ventricular free wall together with complete spectral analysis of transmitted light. This approach is a significant improvement in the quality of cardiac optical absorbance spectroscopic metabolic analyses.

Anoxic cell core can promote necrotic cell death in cardiomyocytes at physiological extracellular PO2

The physical law of diffusion imposes O2 concentration gradients from the plasma membrane to the center of the cell. The present study was undertaken to determine how such intracellular radial gradients of O2 affect the fate of isolated single cardiomyocytes. In single rat cardiomyocytes, mitochondrial respiration was moderately elevated by an oxidative phosphorylation uncoupler to augment the intracellular O2 gradient. At physiological extracellular O2 levels (2-5%), decreases in myoglobin O2 saturation and increases in NADH fluorescence at the center of the cell were imaged (anoxic cell core) while the mitochondrial membrane potential (DeltaPsim) and ATP levels at the anoxic cell core were relatively sustained. In contrast, treatment with 0.5 mM iodoacetamide (IA) to inhibit creatine kinase (CK) resulted in depletion of both DeltaPsim and ATP at the anoxic cell core. Even at normal extracellular Po2, actively respiring cardiomyocytes developed rigor contracture followed by necrotic cell death. Furthermore, such rigor was remarkably accelerated by IA, whereas cell injury was perfectly rescued by mitochondrial F1Fo inhibition by oligomycin. These results suggest that increases in radial gradients of O2 potentially promote cell death through the reverse action of F1Fo in mitochondria located at the anoxic cell core. However, in the intact cardiomyocyte, the CK-mediated energy flux from the subsarcolemmal space may sustain DeltaPsim at the cell core, thus avoiding uncontrolled consumption of ATP that can lead to necrotic cell death. Mitochondria at the anoxic core can cause necrotic cell death in cardiomyocytes at physiological extracellular Po2.

Cardiac performance as a function of intracellular oxygen tension in buffer-perfused hearts

Critical intracellular myocardial oxygen tension was determined by optical spectroscopic measurement of myoglobin oxygen saturation in crystalloid-perfused guinea pig hearts. Accurate end-point determinations of the maximally oxygenated and deoxygenated myoglobin were made. Hearts were subjected to a steady decrease in perfusate oxygen tension while left ventricular developed pressure, maximal left ventricular dP/dt, myocardial oxygen consumption, lactate release, and adenosine release were measured as indices of myocardial function. Intracellular myoglobin was found to be only 72% saturated under baseline conditions with an arterial oxygen tension of >600 mmHg at 37 degrees C. Baseline intracellular oxygen tension was 6.3 mmHg. Myocardial oxygen consumption was decreased by 10% when the oxygen tension fell to 5.7 mmHg, and cardiac contraction decreased 10% when oxygen tension was 4.1 mmHg. Adenosine release and, finally, lactate release began to increase at sequentially lower oxygen tensions. The present results indicate that the buffer-perfused guinea pig heart at 37 degrees C has an intracellular oxygen tension just above the threshold for impaired function.

Visualization of myoglobin-facilitated mitochondrial O(2) delivery in a single isolated cardiomyocyte

The purpose of the present study was to visualize myoglobin-facilitated oxygen delivery to mitochondria at a critical mitochondrial oxygen supply in single isolated cardiomyocytes of rats. Using the autofluorescence of mitochondrial reduced nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (phosphate) (NAD(P)H), the mitochondrial oxygen supply was imaged from approximately 1.4 microm inside the cell surface at a subcellular spatial resolution. Significant radial gradients of intracellular oxygenation were produced by superfusing the cell suspension with a mixed gas containing 2-4% oxygen while stimulating mitochondrial respiration with an uncoupler of oxidative phosphorylation. Augmentation of the NAD(P)H fluorescence started from the core of the cell (anoxic core) and progressively expanded toward the plasma membrane, as the extracellular Po(2) was lowered. Inactivation of cytosolic myoglobin by 5 mM NaNO(2) significantly enlarged such anoxic regions. Nitrite affected neither mitochondrial respiration in uncoupled cells nor the relationship between Po(2) and the NAD(P)H fluorescence in coupled cells. Thus we conclude that myoglobin significantly facilitates intracellular oxygen transport at a critical level of mitochondrial oxygen supply in single cardiomyocytes.