11-cis-retinal and Atrial-Fibrillation

Recently, a new ablation strategy for atrial fibrillation has emerged, which involves the identification of rotors (ie, local drivers) followed by the localized targeting of their core region by ablation. However, this concept has been subject to debate because the mode of arrhythmia termination remains poorly understood, as dedicated models and research tools are lacking. We took a unique optogenetic approach to induce and locally target a rotor in atrial monolayers.. Neonatal rat atrial cardiomyocyte monolayers expressing a depolarizing light-gated ion channel (Ca. Localized optogenetic targeting of rotors in atrial monolayers could lead to both stabilization and destabilization of reentrant activity. For termination, however, a line of block is required reaching from the core region to at least 1 unexcitable boundary. These findings may improve our understanding of the mechanisms involved in rotor-guided ablation.

Topics: Action Potentials; Animals; Animals, Newborn; Atrial Fibrillation; Calcium Channels; Catheter Ablation; Cells, Cultured; Heart Atria; Heart Rate; Myocytes, Cardiac; Optogenetics; Rats, Wistar; Rhodopsin; Time Factors; Transfection