Max Lab
Posters-Accepted Abstracts: Biol Syst Open Access
Max Lab was fortunate in having been a major contributor to the establishment of Mechanoelectric Transduction or coupling (MEC)-Mechanosensitivity (stretch) in heart. MEC is essentially a reverse of the unidirectional excitationcontraction coupling (ECC) and is now a physiological entity. MEC is also gaining widespread clinical application in cardiac electrophysiology and is a novel, unexpected, mechanism of sudden heart-related death with potential profound therapeutic implications. (Mechanosensitivity in general is achieving a global presence initiating a plethora of downstream signals in biology influencing neonatal development, organ systems and disease.) Max Labā??s integrative work started on isolated papillary muscle extending "up" to the intact ventricle in anaesthetized animals and to man as well as "down" to cellular studies. In collaboration he is currently integrating a nano-research path exploiting the Scanning Ion Conductance Microscope (SICM). The SICM is a high-resolution (submicron) imaging and research tool similar in principle to the Atomic Force Microscope but with the advantages of a no-touch nanopipette as a probe instead of a rigid tapping cantilever, no required staining or fixing of dead tissue and the use of living preparations in physiological solutions. Dedicated soft and hardware scans the probe over the membrane surface without touching it, morphologically defining its near nanostructure and with appropriate hybridization enabling functional studies such as ion transport and receptor regulation and cell signaling. This can be exceedingly difficult to do in living cells with other high-resolution systems. Current study includes mechanosensitivity by mechanically probing nano- precise areas of a cell. Applying hydrostatic pressure through the nanopipette mechanically indents discrete areas of the surface membrane to study regional mechanosensitivity and Mechanoelectric Coupling. Indenting liberates intracellular calcium by mechanisms still under investigation.
