How the zebrafish repairs a broken heart

An MDC research team led by Jan Philipp Junker and Daniela Panáková has found that zebrafish can regenerate heart tissue after injury. Connective tissue cells play an important role in the process by temporarily entering ...

Nano fiber feels forces and hears sounds made by cells

Engineers at the University of California San Diego have developed a miniature device that's sensitive enough to feel the forces generated by swimming bacteria and hear the beating of heart muscle cells.

Muscle-powered bio-bots walk on command (w/ Video)

(Phys.org) —A new generation of miniature biological robots is flexing its muscle. Engineers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign demonstrated a class of walking "bio-bots" powered by muscle cells and controlled ...

Gene alteration in mice mimics heart-building effect of exercise

By tweaking a single gene, scientists have mimicked in sedentary mice the heart-strengthening effects of two weeks of endurance training, according to a report from Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical ...

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Cardiac muscle

Cardiac muscle is a type of involuntary striated muscle found in the walls of the heart, specifically the myocardium. Cardiac muscle cells are known as cardiac myocytes (or cardiomyocytes). Cardiac muscle is one of three major types of muscle, the others being skeletal and smooth muscle. The cells that comprise cardiac muscle are sometimes seen as intermediate between these two other types in terms of appearance, structure, metabolism, excitation-coupling and mechanism of contraction. Cardiac muscle shares similarities with skeletal muscle with regard to its striated appearance and contraction, with both differing significantly from smooth muscle cells.

Coordinated contraction of cardiac muscle cells in the heart propel blood from the atria and ventricles to the blood vessels of the circulatory system. Cardiac muscle cells, like all tissues in the body, rely on an ample blood supply to deliver oxygen and nutrients and to remove waste products such as carbon dioxide. The coronary arteries fulfill this function.

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