Correlation between relaxation and automaticity in embryonic heart cell aggregates.

Diastolic depolarization in cardiac muscle is due to a decline in potassium permeability that has been ascribed to removal of intracellular free calcium. A continued decline in tension during the pacemaker potential might therefore occur. In this study, contractile responses of chicken embryonic heart cell aggregates are recorded with a photodiode. Photodiode output is well correlated with the position of the aggregate's edge. Movements of different edges are synchronous, and their amplitude and duration vary appropriately during experimental maneuvers that alter the magnitude and duration of contractile force. Edge movement during relaxation has two phases, a rapid phase lasting about 100 msec and a slow phase that may last over 10 sec. The slow phase is not due to viscoelasticity because its time course does not depend on the magnitude or duration of the initial deformation. The rate of relaxation is correlated with the rate of depolarization during the pacemaker potential. Reduction in automaticity during cooling, spontaneous variation, and overdrive pacing are associated with impairment of the slow component of relaxation. Electrophysiological evidence suggests that the diastolic potassium permeability of the aggregates is controlled by intracellular calcium. A possible explanation for the correlation between the slope of the pacemaker potential and the slow component of relaxation is that both phenomena reflect a common physiological process-i.e., the removal of free calcium from the cytoplasm.