Location and functional characterization of the right atrioventricular pacemaker ring in the adult avian heart

Previous histological studies showed that in addition to a sinus node, an atrioventricular (AV) node, an AV bundle, left and right bundle branches, birds also possess a right AV-Purkinje ring that is located in the atrial sheet of the right muscular AV-valve along all its base length. The functionality of the AV-Purkinje ring is unknown. In this work, we studied the topology of pacemaker myocytes in the atrial side of the isolated chicken spontaneously contracting right muscular AV-valve using the method of microelectrode mapping of action potentials. We show that AV-cells having the ability to show pacemaking reside in the right muscular AV-valve. Pacemaker action potentials were exclusively recorded close to the base of the valve along its whole length from dorsal to the ventral attachment to the interventricular septum. These action potentials have much slower rate of depolarization, lower amplitude, and higher diastolic depolarization than action potentials of Purkinje (conducting) cells. We conclude the right AV-valve has a ring bundle of pacemaker cells (but not Purkinje cells) in the adult chicken heart.