Fig. 1

Efsevin restores rhythmic cardiac contractions in zebrafish tremblor embryos. (A) Line scans across the atria of Tg(myl7:GFP) embryonic hearts at 48 hpf. Rhythmically alternating systoles and diastoles are recorded from vehicle- (upper left) or efsevin- treated wild type (upper right) and efsevin-treated tre (lower right) embryos, while only sporadic unsynchronized contractions are recorded from vehicle-treated tre embryos (lower left). (B, C) Fractional shortening (FS) deduced from the line-scan traces. While cardiac contraction was not observed in tre, efsevin-treated wild type and tre hearts have similar levels of FS to those observed in control hearts. Ventricular FS of wild type v.s. wild type + efsevin vs tre + efsevin: 39 ± 0.6%, n = 8 vs 39 ± 1%, n = 10 vs 35 ± 3%, n = 6; and Atrial FS: 37 ± 1%, n = 11 vs 35 ± 2%, n = 11 vs 33 ± 2%, n = 15. (D) While efsevin restored a heart rate of 46 ± 2 beats per minute (bpm) in tre embryos, same treatment does not affect the heart rate in wild type embryos (126 ± 2 bpm in vehicle-treated embryos vs 123 ± 3 bpm in efsevin-treated wild-type embryos). ***, p < 0.001 by one-way ANOVA. (E) Dose-dependence curve for efsevin. The tre embryos were treated with various concentrations of efsevin from 24 hpf and cardiac contractions were analyzed at 48 hpf. (F-H) Representative time traces of local field potentials for wild type (F), tre (G) and efsevin-treated tre (H) embryos clearly display periods of regular, irregular, and restored periodic electrical activity. (I) In vivo optical maps of Ca²⁺ activation represented by isochronal lines every 33 ms recorded from 36 hpf wild type (left), tre (center) and efsevin-treated tre (right) embryos.