Our laboratory currently focuses on two projects. The first is to explore the pathophysiological significance of a condition that we call Ectopic Nexus. It refers to a functional state of an injured cardiac tissue in which multiple poorly-coupled ectopic sources form a transient "breeding" microenvironment in which ectopic activity develops from individual cells into slowly propagating ectopic waves confined to the area of injury. The second project is aimed at assessment of the impulse propagation and excitability properties of the cardiomyocyte networks derived from stem cells.
Location of ectopic sources (black dots) correlates with high spatial gradients of the change
in NADH fluorescence (color coded surface) caused by low-flow reperfusion. Details in
Kay et al, Am.J.Physiol.2008
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