Contractility of the heart cells (sarcomere shortening of isolated cardiomyocytes) is known as an indicator of the toxic or therapeutic effects of drugs and chemical entities. Aurora using its contractility assay services including the IonOptix system accurately predicts the cardiotoxic potential of your cells at high frequency providing a wealth of data for the assessment of cardiac drug safety. We can test your compounds in contractility assays using primary cardiomyocytes or hiPSC-derived cardiomyocytes. For more information and request of our assay services please contact us.
Cardiomyocyte Contractility is controlled by the excitation-contraction coupling machinery involving Ca2+ influx and efflux within myocytes. Impairment to this regulatory machinery can lead to serious cardiac conditions. Aurora uses the IonOptix system (Milton, MA, USA) to record real-time changes in sarcomere length of single isolated cardiomyocytes through video acquisition. Ca2+ cycling is monitored in parallel by recording Ca2+ transients from fura-2 loaded isolated cardiomyocytes. This unique system allows us to investigate the details of cellular mechanisms of drug-induced negative or positive inotropy.
Aurora Contract Research Services, using label-free technology and various animal models helps to make your drug discovery experimental design and data interpretation fast and easy. Contact us for a more in-depth discussion on how our provided assays can be customized to meet your specific goals.