Primary Culture of Adult Rat Heart Myocytes

Summary

In this paper, we described a typical way to isolate and culture adult rat heart myocytes. Collagenase and protease are used to digest and isolate single myocytes. Myocytes cultured follow this protocol meet most experiment requirements.

Abstract

Cultured primary adult rodent heart cells are an important model system for cardiovascular research. Nevertheless, establishment of robust, viable cultured adult myocytes can be a technically challenging, rate-limiting step for many researchers. Here we described a protocol to obtain a high yield of adult rat heart myocytes that remain viable in culture for several days. The heart is isolated and perfused with collagenase and protease under low Ca²⁺ conditions to recover single myocytes. Ca²⁺-tolerant cells are obtained by stepwise increases in extracellular Ca²⁺ concentration in three subsequent wash steps. Cells are filtered, resuspended in culture medium, and plated on laminin coated slips. Cultured myocytes obtained using this protocol are viable for up to four days and are suitable for most experiments including electrophysiology, biochemistry, imaging and molecular biology.

Protocol

Part I. Preparation for surgery The day before the rat surgery, make certain that all solutions are made, but do not add any enzymes yet. Buffers A, B and the wash buffer should all be filtered for sterility prior to storage. The buffers should all be stored at 4 °C. 6-well tissue culture plates must be plated with 10-20 μg/mL laminin in 2 mL 1XSFM the day before as well, and should be stored at 37 °C in a CO2 incubator. On the day of the surgery, prepare the surgical i…

Discussion

A critical step is the speed with which the isolated heart is hung up on the perfusion system. The length of the enzymatic digestion period may be a little different for each rat. The adjustment depends on how soft the heart becomes after the regular period of digestion. The slowly recovery of Ca²⁺ after enzyme digestion is essential for obtaining Ca²⁺-tolerant healthy cells.

For guinea pig, the protocol is the same except hyaluronidase is used instead of Protease XIV. …

Materials

Material Name	Tipo	Company	Catalogue Number	Comment
NaCl		Sigma	S6191
KCl		Sigma	P9541
HEPES		Sigma	H4034
K2HPO4		Sigma	P9666
MgSO4		Fluka	63068
Glucose		Sigma	G7021
CaCl2		Sigma	C7902
Heparin Sodium Salt		Sigma	H4784
Collagenase Type II		Worthington Biochemical	LS004176
Protease XIV		Sigma	P5147
2,3-Butanedione Monoxime (BDM)		Sigma	B0753
Carnitine		Sigma	C9500
Taurine		Sigma	T0625
Glutamic Acid		Sigma	G1501
BSA		Sigma	A3294
Creatine		Sigma	C3630
Antibiotic		Cellgro	30-009-CI
Media 199		GIBCO	11150
FBS		Hyclone	SH30071.03
Laminin		BD Bioscience	354232
water bath		Fisher Scientific	15-462-5
variable flow chemical pump		Fisher Scientific	15-077-67
6-well culture plate		Corning	3516