Abstract
Decreased cardiac output is commonly associated with myocardial ischaemic injury and there is a therapeutic need to design novel inotropic drugs to improve cardiac function. A previous study has shown a relationship between a decline in force development, which relates to cardiac output, and post-translational modifications to myofilament proteins in rat trabeculae. Recording the force-velocity relationship provides a method of observing the contractile function of myofilaments, however, this technique has not been established in our research group. Therefore, the aim of this work was to establish a force-velocity technique to generate force-velocity curves in isolated rat cardiomyocytes with the aid of an expert (Professor Diffee) who has established this technique in his lab.