An Ultrasensitive Transducer for Measurement of Isometric Contractile Force from Single Heart Cells

Overview

Journal Pflugers Arch

Specialty Physiology

Date 1986 Jul 1

PMID 3737376

Citations 11

Authors

L Tung

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

A novel ultrasensitive force transducer suitable for measuring isometric forces generated by single spindle-shaped muscle cells is described. The transducer components are mechanically and electrically simple, consisting of a low power He-Ne laser, a pair of step index, glass optic fibers, and a photodiode detector circuit. To test the operation of the transducer, enzymatically isolated frog ventricular heart cells were used, having peak contractile forces on the order of 100 nN. The transducer presents a number of advantages over existing designs and has a resolution better than 2 nN. As such, it is suitable for excitation-contraction studies in single muscle cells.

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A force transducer and a length-ramp generator for mechanical investigations of frog-heart myocytes.

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