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Science 330 (6006): 971-974

Copyright © 2010 by the American Association for the Advancement of Science

Optogenetic Control of Cardiac Function

Aristides B. Arrenberg,1,3 Didier Y. R. Stainier,2,* Herwig Baier,1 Jan Huisken2,4

Abstract: The cardiac pacemaker controls the rhythmicity of heart contractions and can be substituted by a battery-operated device as a last resort. We created a genetically encoded, optically controlled pacemaker by expressing halorhodopsin and channelrhodopsin in zebrafish cardiomyocytes. Using patterned illumination in a selective plane illumination microscope, we located the pacemaker and simulated tachycardia, bradycardia, atrioventricular blocks, and cardiac arrest. The pacemaker converges to the sinoatrial region during development and comprises fewer than a dozen cells by the time the heart loops. Perturbation of the activity of these cells was entirely reversible, demonstrating the resilience of the endogenous pacemaker. Our studies combine optogenetics and light-sheet microscopy to reveal the emergence of organ function during development.

1 Department of Physiology, University of California, San Francisco, CA 94158, USA.
2 Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics and Cardiovascular Research Institute, University of California, San Francisco, CA 94158, USA.
3 Institute of Biology 1, University of Freiburg, 79104 Freiburg, Germany.
4 Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics, 01307 Dresden, Germany.

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: didier.stainier{at}ucsf.edu

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