A typical heart cell (Cardiomyocyte)
600X magnified Coloured scanning electron micrograph (SEM) of a cardiac myocyte. Cardiac muscle is a specialised type of striated muscle found in the heart. It is the constant contraction of cells like this that pump blood around the body with each beat of the heart. This cell has been grown in a cell culture. We may not immediately think of our heart as a collection of individual cells. But it is the complex interaction of numerous cell types that give the heart its ability to pump blood. Some cells form heart connective tissue, other cells grow into heart valves. And muscle cells give the heart its ability to beat and pump blood throughout the body. A single cell beats when a complex series of gates - called ion channels - open and close in an organized manner. Cell physiologists can measure how these ion channels work using a technique called the patch clamp. As long as the beating cells do not touch one another, their beats are independent - some are faster, some are slower. But after two or three days, the myocytes form interconnected sheets of cells that beat in unison. Pores (gap junctions) open between adjacent touching cells, making their cytoplasms interconnected. It is these gap junctions that ensure that the connected cells work as one. If the cells of the adult don't beat in union, heart arrythmias can occur. Electronic pacemakers may sometimes be used in a patient whose heart doesn't beat in rhythm.