The ABI Bioinstrumentation Laboratory has developed the world’s only flow-through calorimeter for measuring simultaneously the mechanical (force, length) and energetic (heat production) properties of realistically-contracting individual heart muscles. With this device, we can programmatically vary the amount of work done by a living heart muscle while measuring its energy consumption.
Our device combines sensitive temperature sensors with a sophisticated laser-interferometer based force-length control system. We electrically stimulate the muscle, causing it to contract and describe a force-length “work-loop” modelled on the pressure-volume behaviour of the whole heart. We measure the rate at which heat is produced by the muscle to 100 nW resolution while controlling muscle length to 2 nm resolution and force to 1 μN resolution.
This unique instrument is being used by our “experimental cardiac energetics” researchers in several major studies:
- Dr June-Chiew Han is using this instrument in an HRC-funded study of the effect of diabetes on cardiac efficiency.
- Dr Kenneth Tran is collecting data on effect of hypertension on cardiac efficiency for an NIH-funded study.
- Dr Nari Kim is developing multi-scale mathematical models of heart tissue using data measured from this instrument.
- Toan Pham is studying the underlying causes of cardiac dysfunction associated with cardiac hypertrophy.
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