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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2013 Dec 1.
Published in final edited form as: J Muscle Res Cell Motil. 2012 Jun 30;33(6):431–437. doi: 10.1007/s10974-012-9310-0

Figure 1.

Figure 1

Isolated rat right ventricular endocardial trabecula attached to a high-speed motor via a hook inserted through a remnant of the tricuspid valve on the right hand side, and a block of free wall ventricular tissue held within a platinum basket attached to a sensitive force transducer on the left hand side. The small axial dimensions (<200 μm wide and <100 μm thin) of these ultra-thin myocardial preparations both ensure adequate oxygenation and waste product removal as well as allow for the measurement of high-speed sarcomere length by laser diffraction techniques; longitudinal uniformity (2–5 mm in length) allow for unambiguous sarcomere mechanics measurement under strict sarcomere length feedback control.