Klumm M, Seidel T, Heim C (2026)
Publication Type: Journal article, Review article
Publication year: 2026
DOI: 10.1007/s00398-026-00778-6
Atrial fibrillation (AF) is the most prevalent arrythmia worldwide and has a profound impact on patient’s quality of life. In cardiac surgery AF is a common occurrence. Roughly one in three patients undergoing cardiac surgery experiences an episode of AF; however, atrial remodelling which is of crucial relevance regarding the initiation and perpetuation of AF remains insufficiently understood. Many studies investigating the pathophysiology of AF focus on animal models or short-term experiments. Thus, establishing an experimental set-up for a long-term culture of human atrial myocardium was pursued. Following tissue procurement during open-heart surgery with cardiopulmonary bypass, trabeculae from the right atrial appendage were prepared and brought into organotypic culture for initially 12 and later also 21 days under constant diastolic preload and electromechanical stimulation. During this time, contractile, electrophysiological and structural parameters as well as gene expression were assessed. No relevant differences between fresh and cultivated trabeculae were observed and the tissue viability at the end of culturing was also confirmed. The findings demonstrate that long-term cultivation of structurally intact, constantly beating human atrial myocardium is feasible. In the future, this model could be used to investigate the pathophysiology of atrial fibrillation as well as pharmacological effects directly in human atrial tissue.
APA:
Klumm, M., Seidel, T., & Heim, C. (2026). Long-term culture of human atrial myocardium Langzeitkultur von humanem Vorhofmyokard. Zeitschrift für Herz-, Thorax- und Gefäßchirurgie. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00398-026-00778-6
MLA:
Klumm, Maximilian, Thomas Seidel, and Christian Heim. "Long-term culture of human atrial myocardium Langzeitkultur von humanem Vorhofmyokard." Zeitschrift für Herz-, Thorax- und Gefäßchirurgie (2026).
BibTeX: Download