Tunicate heart cells demonstrate action potentials similar to mammalian cardiomyocytes and exhibit widespread latent pacemaker capabilities.
Tunicate cells offer a simple model for latent pacemakers; leaves open translation to mammalian arrhythmia mechanisms.
The structure of tunicate hearts is apparently simple when compared to higher chordate hearts because these simple tubes have no structural valves and are only one cell layer thick. Yet action potentials recorded from single cells in the tunicate heart are very similar to those of mammalian heart cells and there appears to be only one electrophysiological cell type1–3*. Pacemaker regions at the ends of the tunicate heart have not yet been investigated with microelectrodes but since most cells can develop pacemaker properties when isolated from the primary pacemakers there may be only a quantitative difference between all cells4.
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Mahlon E. Kriebel (1969) studied this question.
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