Two-Photon Laser Scanning Microscopy of the Transverse-Axial Tubule System in Ventricular Cardiomyocytes from Failing and Non-Failing Human Hearts

Figure 1

Optical Cross Sections of Human Cardiomyocytes from a Healthy Donor‘s Heart (a), (b) and an End-Stage Failing Heart (c), (d). Transmitted light images (a), (c) were recorded along with Di-8-ANEPPS fluorescence emission staining the plasma-lemmal membrane including the TATS (b), (d). These low power images were taken with a 60× lens without optical zoom. Autofluorescent “beads” were often observed in the perinuclear region (notable as greenish spots in the image shown in panel (b), showing a broad emission spectrum, even in the absence of Di-8-ANEPPS loading. These areas were excluded from the TATS analysis.

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