Laminin, laminin-entactin and extracellular matrix are equally appropriate adhesive substrates for isolated adult rat cardiomyocyte culture and experimentation

Although techniques for isolating and culturing adult cardiomyocytes were developed four decades ago, it still remains a challenge to isolate high yields of healthy viable cardiomyocytes, to maintain them in culture, and to use them successfully in experiments. This is due to the difficulty in deciding which adhesive substrate and buffer composition to use. Therefore this study aimed to (1) identify a robust experimental buffer to sustain survival of cultured adult rat cardiomyocytes (ARCMs) during control normoxic conditions, and (2) to identify an adhesive substrate that provides optimal cell adherence, not only during normoxia, but especially during simulated ischemia-reperfusion (SIR) experiments