Way to check heart's energy store
The Bristol University team who made the breakthrough say their discovery could ultimately aid recovery from heart attacks and cardiac surgery.
Under normal conditions, heart cells were able to make energy quickly.
But when cells had to beat suddenly from rest, which occurs after a heart attack, there was an energy lag.
Potentially, this lag could prevent the heart from beating properly and make the situation worse, the scientists told the Journal of Biological Chemistry.
Dr. Elinor Griffiths and colleagues studied cell mitochondria -- the power stations of cells which convert energy from food into chemical energy called ATP.
To be able to see exactly what was going on inside the heart cell mitochondria, the scientists used a protein, called luciferase, which is normally found in the tails of firefly. -------------------Illuminating
Luciferase lights up in the presence of ATP, which meant the amount of light could be used to gauge the amount of energy or ATP made by the mitochondria.
Exactly how mitochondria tailor the supply of ATP to demand is not fully known. But being able to directly measure cellular ATP levels should aid understanding, said Dr. Griffiths.
"We know already that during cardiac surgery these energy levels within the heart will drop because surgeons have to stop the heart when they operate on it. "Eventually, we hope to find a way to either prevent the energy levels from dropping or enable them to recover very quickly."
She said drugs had already been discovered that could help protect mitochondria from damage and preserve their function.
"If we can get those into the heart at the right time then we could protect the mitochondria and get them to produce more energy," she said. Prof Peter Weissberg, medical director of the British Heart Foundation, which gave funding to the research, said: "This work is at the cutting edge of molecular imaging and allows scientists to follow, in real time, what is happening to the energy supply inside heart cells."