Cardiac chamber formation represents an essential evolutionary milestone that allows for the heart to receive (atrium) and pump (ventricle) blood throughout a closed circulatory system. Here, we reveal a novel transcriptional pathway between foxn4 and tbx genes that facilitates this evolutionary event. We show that the zebrafish gene slipjig, which encodes Foxn4, regulates the formation of the atrioventricular (AV) canal to divide the heart. sli/foxn4 is expressed in the AV canal, and its encoded product binds to a highly conserved tbx2 enhancer domain that contains Foxn4- and T-box-binding sites, both necessary to regulate tbx2b expression in the AV canal.

To study the ionic mechanisms of electrophysiologic changes in cell excitability and action potential duration during the acute phase of myocardial ischemia. Using an ionic-based theoretical model of the cardiac ventricular cell, the dynamic LRd model, we have simulated the three major component conditions of acute ischemia (elevated [K]o, acidosis and anoxia) at the level of individual ionic currents and ionic concentrations. The conditions were applied individually and in combination to identify ionic mechanisms responsible for reduced excitability at rest potentials, delayed recovery of excitability, and shortened action potential duration. Increased extracellular potassium ([K]o) had the major effect on cell excitability by depolarizing resting membrane potential (Vrest), causing reduction in sodium channel availability. Acidosis caused a [K]o-independent reduction in maximum upstroke velocity, (dVm/dt)max. A transition from sodium-current dominated to calcium-current dominated upstroke occurred, and calcium current alone was able to sustain the upstroke, but only after sodium channels were almost completely (97%) inactivated. Acidic conditions prevented the transition to calcium dominated upstroke by acidic reduction of both sodium and calcium currents. Anoxia, simulated by lowering [ATP]i and activating the APT-dependent potassium current, IK(ATP), was the only process that could decrease action potential duration by more than 50% and reproduce AP shape changes that are observed experimentally. Acidic or anoxic depression of the L-type calcium current could not reproduce the observed action potential shape changes and APD shortening. Delayed recovery of excitability, known as 'post-repolarization refractoriness', was determined by the voltage-dependent kinetics of sodium channel recovery; Vrest depolarization caused by elevated [K]o increased the time constant of (dVm/dt)max recovery from tau = 10.3 ms at [K]o = 4.5 mM to tau = 81.4 ms at [K]o = 12 mM, reflecting major slowing of sodium-channel recovery. Anoxia and acidosis had little affect on tau. The major conditions of acute ischemia, namely elevated [K]o, acidosis and anoxia, applied at the ionic channel level are sufficient to simulate the major electrical changes associated with ischemia. Depression of membrane excitability and delayed recovery of excitability in the single, unloaded cell are caused by elevated [K]o with additional excitability depression by acidosis. Major changes in action potential duration and shape can only be accounted for by anoxia-dependent opening of IK(ATP).

Vertebrate hearts depend on highly specialized cardiomyocytes that form the cardiac conduction system (CCS) to coordinate chamber contraction and drive blood efficiently and unidirectionally throughout the organism. Defects in this specialized wiring system can lead to syncope and sudden cardiac death. Thus, a greater understanding of cardiac conduction development may help to prevent these devastating clinical outcomes. Utilizing a cardiac-specific fluorescent calcium indicator zebrafish transgenic line, Tg(cmlc2:gCaMP)^s878, that allows for in vivo optical mapping analysis in intact animals, we identified and analyzed four distinct stages of cardiac conduction development that correspond to cellular and anatomical changes of the developing heart. Additionally, we observed that epigenetic factors, such as hemodynamic flow and contraction, regulate the fast conduction network of this specialized electrical system. To identify novel regulators of the CCS, we designed and performed a new, physiology-based, forward genetic screen and identified for the first time, to our knowledge, 17 conduction-specific mutations. Positional cloning of hobgoblin^s634 revealed that tcf2, a homeobox transcription factor gene involved in mature onset diabetes of the young and familial glomerulocystic kidney disease, also regulates conduction between the atrium and the ventricle. The combination of the Tg(cmlc2:gCaMP)^s878 line/in vivo optical mapping technique and characterization of cardiac conduction mutants provides a novel multidisciplinary approach to further understand the molecular determinants of the vertebrate CCS. Aberrant electrical activity of the heart, otherwise known as cardiac arrhythmia, may disrupt heart contractions, leading to loss of consciousness and sudden death. Every year, approximately 450,000 individuals in the United States die suddenly from this event. Currently, the only proven preventive therapy for sudden cardiac death is the automatic implantable cardioverter defibrillator, which carries a significant burden and cost to the patient. Greater understanding of the cardiac conduction system, which coordinates rhythmic beating of the heart, may lead to novel and safer therapeutic options for these patients. Working with zebrafish, a productive model system for understanding human disease, we have developed a cardiac-specific fluorescent calcium indicator zebrafish transgenic line to analyze the formation of the cardiac conduction system. Using this fluorescent transgenic line, we have observed four distinct physiologic cardiac conduction stages that correspond to cellular and anatomic changes of the developing heart. Furthermore, we have designed and performed a new, physiology-based, forward genetic screen to identify cardiac conduction mutants that would have escaped discovery in previous screens. Overall, these studies may prove rewarding toward developing therapeutic options aimed at maintaining and/or improving overall cardiac health.

In heart muscle cells, a region of the sarcolemmal membrane periodically invaginates to form T tubules, a specialized membrane domain that contains important ion channels regulating cell contraction. Robin Shaw and his colleagues describe how a cardiac-specific splice variant of the isoform of the protein BIN1 helps make folds in T tubules, which affects the ability of ions in the extracellular space to freely diffuse and protects the heart from arrhythmia. Cardiomyocyte T tubules are important for regulating ion flux. Bridging integrator 1 (BIN1) is a T-tubule protein associated with calcium channel trafficking that is downregulated in failing hearts. Here we find that cardiac T tubules normally contain dense protective inner membrane folds that are formed by a cardiac isoform of BIN1. In mice with cardiac Bin1 deletion, T-tubule folding is decreased, which does not change overall cardiomyocyte morphology but leads to free diffusion of local extracellular calcium and potassium ions, prolonging action-potential duration and increasing susceptibility to ventricular arrhythmias. We also found that T-tubule inner folds are rescued by expression of the BIN1 isoform BIN1+13+17, which promotes N-WASP–dependent actin polymerization to stabilize the T-tubule membrane at cardiac Z discs. BIN1+13+17 recruits actin to fold the T-tubule membrane, creating a 'fuzzy space' that protectively restricts ion flux. When the amount of the BIN1+13+17 isoform is decreased, as occurs in acquired cardiomyopathy, T-tubule morphology is altered, and arrhythmia can result.