Diabetes is a recognized risk factor of heart disease. The abnormalities related to a decreased heart performance probably arise at cellular and molecular levels already in the asymptomatic phase of diabetes. However, the early alterations initiating a sequence of events that culminates in the clinical signs have not been fully elucidated yet. This review deals with some biophysical methods applied to investigation of left ventricular myocytes in rats with streptozotocin diabetes, as well as our most important findings concerning diabetes-induced cell changes which cannot be captured by other techniques. The observed decrease in sarcolemmal membrane fluidity is causatively associated with increased glycation and glycoxidation. On the other hand, an increase in the mitochondrial membrane fluidity may be attributed to augmented energy transduction through the membranes. We reported for the first time concurrent measurements of membrane potential and dynamics, and respiratory chain activities in rat heart mitochondria, as well as calcium transients in the myocytes from diabetic hearts together with the assessed quantitative relationships among these variables. We were able to detect some significant alterations that may underlie myocyte dysfunction and subsequent remodeling of the heart. We suppose that not all these changes reflect mechanisms leading to pathology; some may represent adaptive and compensatory responses to diabetes., I. Waczulíková ... [et al.]., and Obsahuje bibliografii a bibliografické odkazy
Významným fyziologickým parametrem živých buněk i řady jejich organel je membránový potenciál. K jeho sledování se často používá fluorescenčních sond, které se akumulují uvnitř buněk až do vyrovnání jejich intra- a extracelulárních elektrochemických potenciálů. Obsahem tohoto článku je přehled optických metod sloužících k tomuto účelu, jenž zahrnuje spektrofluometrii, proudovou cytometrii a konfokální mikroskopii a je prezentován jako průřez aktivitami biofyzikálního oddělení Fyzikálního ústavu UK na Matematicko-fyzikální fakultě UK., Jaromír Plášek, Dana Gášková., and Obsahuje seznam literatury