Mechanoelectric coupling and arrhythmogenesis in cardiomyocytes contracting under mechanical afterload in a 3D viscoelastic hydrogel

Abstract

The heart pumps blood against the mechanical afterload from arterial resistance, and increased afterload may alter cardiac electrophysiology and contribute to life-threatening arrhythmias. However, the cellular and molecular mechanisms underlying mechanoelectric coupling in cardiomyocytes remain unclear. We developed an innovative patch-clamp-in-gel technology to embed cardiomyocytes in a three-dimensional (3D) viscoelastic hydrogel that imposes an afterload during regular myocyte contraction. Here, we investigated how afterload affects action potentials, ionic currents, intracellular Ca²⁺ transients, and cell contraction of adult rabbit ventricular cardiomyocytes. We found that afterload prolonged action potential duration (APD), increased transient outward K⁺ current, decreased inward rectifier K⁺ current, and increased L-type Ca²⁺ current. Increased Ca²⁺ entry caused enhanced Ca²⁺ transients and contractility. Moreover, elevated afterload led to discordant alternans in APD and Ca²⁺ transient. Ca²⁺ alternans persisted under action potential clamp, indicating that the alternans was Ca²⁺ dependent. Furthermore, all these afterload effects were significantly attenuated by inhibiting nitric oxide synthase 1 (NOS1). Taken together, our data reveal a mechano-chemo-electrotransduction (MCET) mechanism that acutely transduces afterload through NOS1-nitric oxide signaling to modulate the action potential, Ca²⁺ transient, and contractility. The MCET pathway provides a feedback loop in excitation-Ca²⁺ signaling-contraction coupling, enabling autoregulation of contractility in cardiomyocytes in response to afterload. This MCET mechanism is integral to the individual cardiomyocyte (and thus the heart) to intrinsically enhance its contractility in response to the load against which it has to do work. While this MCET is largely compensatory for physiological load changes, it may also increase susceptibility to arrhythmias under excessive pathological loading.

Keywords: action potential; cardiac arrhythmia; intracellular calcium cycling; mechano-chemo-transduction; mechanosensitive ion channels.