Long-term cell culture of adult mammalian cardiac myocytes: electron microscopic and immunofluorescent analyses of myofibrillar structure.

Adult rat heart was dissociated into a single-cell suspension by a retrograde perfusion technique with collagenase and hyaluronidase in Krebs-Ringer phosphate buffer. Long-term culture of these isolated single cardiac muscle cells was established for up to 45 days. Transmission electron microscopy and immunofluorescence analysis with monoclonal antibodies to cardiac myosin were used to examine sequentially the external and internal structural organization of the cardiac myocytes. Most of the cardiac myocytes exhibited prominent alterations in their external and internal structural organization during the first two weeks of culture. As they attached to the substrate and spread out, the myocytes assumed various shapes and sizes, with the exception of a few which maintained their original cylindrical shape. Electron microscopy of 2 to 4-day cultures revealed that most of the muscle cells contained disorganized myofibrils and surface blebs with enclosed mitochondria and myofilaments, which were eventually extruded from the cytoplasm. With progressive culture, the cardiac myocytes appeared to lose myofibrillar material; fewer myofilaments or sacromere fragments with interfibrillar mitochondria were observed in the sarcoplasm. Such cells resembled cultured embryonic or neonatal cardiac myocytes. However, some muscle cells retained closely packed, well organized myofibrils characteristic of freshly dissociated or in vivo cardiac myocytes. Immunofluorescence microscopy demonstrated that the cultured cardiac myocytes were strongly myosin positive throughout their morphological changes and subsequent maintenance in culture. Two patterns of fluorescence were observed in these cells in correlation with the fine structural evidence for myofibrillar distribution. One pattern exhibited bright fluorescence near the central region of the cell with a more weakly diffuse fluorescence throughout the cytoplasm; the other pattern was characterized by bright fluorescence throughout the sarcoplasm. Most of the myocytes retained their contractility throughout the culture period excepting the initial 24 to 48 h of cell attachment and flattening. These studies demonstrate the feasibility of maintaining contractile cardiac muscle cells from adult rats for at least 1 1/2 months in monolayer culture, although some variability in myofibrillar organization has been observed.