Berlin 2024 – scientific programme

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BP: Fachverband Biologische Physik

BP 28: Cytoskeleton

BP 28.10: Talk

Thursday, March 21, 2024, 12:30–12:45, H 2032

Scanning small-angle X-ray scattering on single cardiomyocytes: high resolution in reciprocal space — •Hendrik Bruns¹, Titus Czajka¹, Michael Sztucki², Sören Brandenburg³, and Tim Salditt¹ — ¹Institut for Xray physics, University of Göttingen, Germany — ²European Synchrotron Radiation Facility, Grenoble, France — ³University Hospital Göttingen, Göttingen, Germany

Muscle contraction is driven by an ordered protein structure in the sarcomere which generates a macroscopic force by synchronized movement. The long-range order in the structure in combination with highly brilliant 4th generation synchrotron radiation enables measurements on single cardiomyocytes in an (ultra) small-angle X-ray scattering (USAXS, SAXS) geometry, with beam sizes comparable to the size of the cell. High spatial resolution in reciprocal space in combination with spatially resolved maps of cells helps to overcome the challenge that cardiac muscle tissue has so far been much less prone for diffraction studies compared to skeletal muscle or trabeculae. Our experiments reveal the structural organization of single cardiomyocytes. In particular, we are able to observe the myosin arrangement and the troponin spacing. The results open up a pathway to measurements of living cells during their contraction cycle, thus improving our fundamental understanding of cardiac muscle function.

Keywords: small-angle X-ray scattering; single cell diffraction; 4th generation synchrotron radiation; sarcomere structure; cardiac muscle contraction