ABSTRACT: The zebrafish (Danio rerio) has emerged as an important model for developmental cardiovascular (CV) biology; however, little is known about the cardiac function of the adult zebrafish enabling it to be used as a model of teleost CV biology. Here, we describe electrophysiological parameters, such as heart rate (HR), action potential duration (APD), and atrioventricular (AV) delay, in the zebrafish heart over a range of physiological temperatures (18-28°C). Hearts were isolated and incubated in a potentiometric dye, RH-237, enabling electrical activity assessment in several distinct regions of the heart simultaneously. Integration of a rapid thermoelectric cooling system facilitated the investigation of acute changes in temperature on critical electrophysiological parameters in the zebrafish heart. While intrinsic HR varied considerably between fish, the ex vivo preparation exhibited impressively stable HRs and sinus rhythm for more than 5 h, with a mean HR of 158 ± 9 bpm (means ± SE; n = 20) at 28°C. Atrial and ventricular APDs at 50% repolarization (APD50) were 33 ± 1 ms and 98 ± 2 ms, respectively. Excitation originated in the atrium, and there was an AV delay of 61 ± 3 ms prior to activation of the ventricle at 28°C. APD and AV delay varied between hearts beating at unique HRs; however, APD and AV delay did not appear to be statistically dependent on intrinsic basal HR, likely due to the innate beat-to-beat variability within each heart. As hearts were cooled to 18°C (by 1°C increments), HR decreased by ~40%, and atrial and ventricular APD50 increased by a factor of ~3 and 2, respectively. The increase in APD with cooling was disproportionate at different levels of repolarization, indicating unique temperature sensitivities for ion currents at different phases of the action potential. The effect of temperature was more apparent at lower levels of repolarization and, as a whole, the atrial APD was the cardiac parameter most affected by acute temperature change. In conclusion, this study describes a preparation enabling the in-depth analysis of transmembrane potential dynamics in whole zebrafish hearts. Because the zebrafish offers some critical advantages over the murine model for cardiac electrophysiology, optical mapping studies utilizing zebrafish offer insightful information into the understanding and treatment of human cardiac arrhythmias, as well as serving as a model for other teleosts.
