Physiologie des Cellules Cardiaques et Vasculaires

Research main theme: Pulmonary veins and atrial fibrillation

Our team conducts research in the field of paroxysmal atrial fibrillation (AF). This pathology is the most common arrhythmia and is associated with increased cardiovascular morbi-mortality which are predominantly mediated by stroke. At the early stage, AF is triggered by electric ectopic foci occurring in pulmonary vein (PV) and able to disturb sinus rhythm in the left atria (LA). The research in PCCV is focused on advancing our understanding physiology of pulmonary veins cardiomyocytes and fundamental mechanisms that trigger AF. We work on the identification of novel pharmacological targets for the electrical isolation of PV from LA as well as for the prevention of the onset of electric foci in PV cardiomyocytes.

Expertises & techniques:

• vascular rings, atrial strips and papillary muscles contractility
• isolated perfused (Langendorff) heart
• isolated cardiomyocyte contractility
• electrophysiology (patch-clamp, microelectrode, multielectrodes array...)
• optical microscopy and image analysis
• ImageJ plugins developments
• living cell confocal microspcopy imaging
• molecular biology
• calcium imaging

Last publications:

• Spiky: an ImageJ plugin for data analysis of functional cardiac and cardiomyocyte studies

  Journal of Imaging - 2022 Apr. (DOI:10.3390/jimaging8040095).

• Automatic Activity Arising in Cardiac Muscle Sleeves of the Pulmonary Vein

  Biomolecules - 2021 Dec. (DOI:10.3390/biom12010023).

• Aqueous Fraction from Hibiscus sabdariffa Relaxes Mesenteric Arteries of Normotensive and Hypertensive Rats through Calcium Current Reduction and Possibly Potassium Channels Modulation

  Nutrients - 2020 Jun. (DOI:10.3390/nu12061782).

• Low voltage-activated channels in rat pulmonary vein cardiomyocytes: coexistence of a non-selective cationic channel and of T-type Ca channels

  Pflugers Arch. - 2020 Jun. (DOI:10.1007/s00424-020-02413-1).

• Selective inhibition of electrical conduction within the pulmonary veins by α1-adrenergic receptors activation in the Rat

  Scientific Reports - 2020 Mar. (DOI:10.1038/s41598-020-62349-5).

• HF_IDS_Cam: fast video capture with ImageJ for real-time analysis.

  Journal of Imaging - 2018 Feb. (DOI:10.3390/jimaging4020044).

• Structural heterogeneity of the rat pulmonary vein myocardium: consequences on intracellular calcium dynamics and arrhythmogenic potential.

  Scientific Reports - 2018 Feb. (DOI:10.1038/s41598-018-21671-9).

• SarConfoCal: simultaneous sarcomere length and cytoplasmic calcium measurements for laser scanning confocal microscopy images.

  Bioinformatics - 2017 Mar. (DOI:10.1093/bioinformatics/btw754).

• SarcOptiM for ImageJ: high-frequency online sarcomere length computing on stimulated cardiomyocytes.

  American Journal of Physiology / Cell Physiology - 2016 Aug. (DOI:10.1152/ajpcell.00094.2016).

• A TTX-Sensitive Resting Na+ Permeability Contributes to the Catecholaminergic Automatic Activity in Rat Pulmonary Vein.

  Journal of Cardiovascular Electrophysiology. 2015 Mar.(DOI:10.1111/jce.12572).

• Automatic quantitative analysis of t-tubule organization in cardiac myocytes using ImageJ.

  American Journal of Physiology / Cell Physiology - 2015 Feb.(DOI:10.1152/ajpcell.00259.2014 ).

Research group members:

Véronique Maupoil	veronique.maupoil@univ-tours.fr
Pierre Bredeloux	pierre.bredeloux@univ-tours.fr
François Gannier	francois.gannier@univ-tours.fr	GPG public key: BBF62462
Côme Pasqualin	come.pasqualin@univ-tours.fr	GPG public key: 826DDC47
Romain Bordy	romain.bordy@univ-tours.fr
Bei-Li Zhang	bei-li.zhang@univ-tours.fr
Claire Malécot	claire.malecot@univ-tours.fr
Ian Findlay	ian.findlay@univ-tours.fr
Angèle Yu	angele.yu@univ-tours.fr

Internship opportunities: