Adding a piezoelectric bimorph actuator and closed-loop control to an optical-fiber force transducer reduced single heart cell shortening from approximately 1% to 0.01% during twitch contractions.
The new null-balance transducer design significantly improves isometric force measurements in single heart cells by increasing stiffness and minimizing cell shortening.
Absolute Event Rate: 0.01% vs 1%
Recently, an ultrasensitive, optical-fiber-based force transducer was developed to measure the microscopic force of contraction of single heart cells. Since force in cardiac muscle is length and velocity dependent, it is desirable to maintain a constant (isometric) cell length. The original design permits approximately 1% shortening of cell length to occur during twitch contractions. The shortening can be reduced significantly by adding a piezoelectric bimorph actuator and closed-loop control, as described in this paper. As a result, the effective stiffness of the transducer can be increased by a factor of about 100, and cell shortening reduced to approximately 0.01%. For the force probes typically used, this is equivalent to a movement of less than 20 nm for a typical value of 100 nN peak cell force in single frog ventricular cells. The gain in stiffness is obtained without sacrificing sensitivity, although at the expense of frequency response. The new design also permits control of cell length and is applicable to studies of the mechanical stiffness of cardiac cells.
Luo et al. (1991) studied this question. Null-balance transducer with piezoelectric bimorph actuator and closed-loop control vs. Original optical-fiber-based force transducer was evaluated on Cell shortening during twitch contractions. Adding a piezoelectric bimorph actuator and closed-loop control to an optical-fiber force transducer reduced single heart cell shortening from approximately 1% to 0.01% during twitch contractions.