With this volume results become generally available of a recent conference that was the first to discuss properties of isolated heart muscle cells from the adult myocardium as a new cardio logical research tool. The conference was held as an International Erwin Riesch Symposium un der the auspices of the Deutsche Gesellschaft fUr Herz- und Kreislaufforschung at Spangenberg Castle, March 22-25, 1984. It was made possible through funding by the Erwin Riesch Foun dation and the Bayer AG which deserve our gratitude for their generosity. It may not be fully reflected in this collection of papers that the atmosphere of this meeting was unique. The reason for this resided apparently in the still rudimentary experiences with the adult cardiocyte model that is now widely acknowledged to be very promising. Thus, quite basic inter ests brought together experts from different biological disciplines who in respect to this new mod el were all still "beginners". It was noteworthy that such common interests exerted a unifying effect upon otherwise rather separated fields of science. The main task of the years to come will certainly consist in improving isolation and culturing conditions for adult myocytes in order to fully establish the isolated cell model in heart research.

Isolated adult heart cells. The development of a new experimental model

Ca-tolerant guinea-pig ventricular myocytes as isolated by pronase in the presence of 250 ?M free calcium
Guinea-pig atrial cardioballs
Determination of isolated myocyte viability: Staining methods and functional criteria
Sarcolemma-bound calcium. Its importance for cell viability
Anoxic injury of adult cardiac myocytes
Non-invasive measurements of cell surface receptors
Surface antigens of adult heart cells and their use in diagnosis
Substrate utilization of adult cardiac myocytes
Characteristics of lactate transfer in isolated cardiac myocytes
The insulin receptor of adult heart muscle cells
Kinetics of cellular uptake of tracers used in myocardial scintigraphy
Adhesion of cardiac myocytes to extracellular matrix components
Development of new intercellular contacts between adult cardiac myocytes in culture
Long-term primary cultures of adult human and rat cardiomyocytes
Morphological dedifferentiation of adult cardiac myocytes in coculture with hepatocytes
Electrophysiological properties of isolated ventricular myocytes
The effect of cyanide on the K-current in guinea-pig ventricular myocytes
Measurements of single-channel currents in the membrane of isolated cells: ATP-dependence of K+-channels
Evidence for Ca-mediated inactivation of ICa in dialysed guinea-pig atrial cardioballs
Cardiac membrane currents and energetic state
Simultaneous measurements of action potentials and contractions in single cultured adult and embryonic heart muscle cells
The two components in the shortening of unloaded ventricular myocytes: Their voltage dependence
Temperature dependence of verapamil action
Microtubules and desmin filaments during the onset of heart growthin the rat
The correlation between catecholamine and lipid peroxidation induced damage in heart cells
Anoxia in neonatal rat heart cell cultures
Enzyme release and glycolytic energy production
Anoxia influences the lateral diffusion of a lipid probe in the plasma membrane of isolated cardiac myocytes
Summaries of the discussions of the symposium
Abstracts of the poster-session on the adult myocyte model
Author Index.