Fig. 8: RyR cluster dispersion during heart failure promotes multirelease, traveling sparks.
a, Correlative imaging of Ca2+ and RyRs within the interior of cardiomyocytes isolated from mice with postinfarction HF. Comparison was made with sham-operated controls (Sham). b, Failing cells exhibited an increased proportion of multirelease sparks. As in Sham, multirelease sparks observed in failing cells traveled further, and were larger and slower than single-release events. c, d, dSTORM imaging revealed marked ‘dispersion’ of RyRs in HF (c), resulting in the appearance of smaller but more numerous clusters, and no change in overall RyR density (d). Scale bars in a and c, 1.6 µm in zoom-outs, 750 nm in enlargements. Data in b and d are presented as mean ± s.e.m. Differences between groups were tested with two-tailed linear mixed models with Tukey post hoc correction for multiple comparisons. *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01, ***P < 0.001. Please refer to Source data for exact P values and n values.
