Muscle Cell Cultures from Human Heart

There are few reports of work with isolated or cultured human cardiac muscle cells. With the exception of Bloom [3], early work was with cultures derived from prenatal material obtained at a variety of gestational times. At first cultures were prepared from explanted tissue; 4- to 14-week embryos [36], 8-to 12-week embryos [29], 6- to 8-week embryos [19], a 13-week embryo [11], and 7- to 10-week embryos [5]. Development of methods for isolation of single cells by treating tissue with enzymes made it possible to prepare cultures of isolated embryonic cells. Halbert et al. [14] and Thompson [35] prepared cultures of cells isolated from 13- to 20-week embryos and, similarly, Lieberman et al. [27] prepared cultures of isolated cells from 14- to 16-week embryos.