OPTOGENETICS: A NOVEL APPROACH IN PACING HAERT TISSUE AND ENGENDER PROPAGATING CARDIAC IMPULSES

Abstract

The cardiac pacemaker controls the rhythmicity of heart contractions and these can be substituted by battery-operated devices as last resource. Optogenetics involves insertion of light-sensitive proteins into human embryonic stem cell to encode DNA making mammalian tissues light-sensitive. The first discovered protein of this type is Channelrhodopsin2 (ChR2), which is widely used in neuroscience. The limitation of electrical stimulation of heart, a standard technique can be overcome by using ChR2.The various methods involved in optogenetics and energy needs were discussed in this section. Initially, optogenetics is confined only to neuronal system, later on extended to heart and other organs. This method involves precise localized stimulation and constant prolonged

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depolarization of cardiomyocytes and cardiac tissue resulting in alterations of pacemaking, Ca

spontaneous extra beats.