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Cardiovascular Research Advance Access originally published online on July 17, 2009
Cardiovascular Research 2009 84(1):9-10; doi:10.1093/cvr/cvp245
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Published on behalf of the European Society of Cardiology. All rights reserved. © The Author 2009. For permissions please email: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org.

‘Funny’ current: If heart rate slowing is not the best answer, what might be?

Henry Gewirtz1,2,*

1 Department of Medicine, Cardiac Unit, Massachusetts General Hospital, Yawkey 5E, 55 Fruit Street, Boston, MA 02114, USA
2 Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA

* Corresponding author. Tel: +1 617 724 3650; fax: +1 617 724 3636/3600. E-mail address: hgewirtz@partners.org; gewirtz.henry@mgh.harvard.edu

This editorial refers to ‘Heart rate reduction with ivabradine improves energy metabolism and mechanical function of isolated ischaemic rabbit heart’ by C. Ceconi et al., pp. 72–82, this issue

The first 10% of the full text of this article appears below.

DiFrancesco first described an ion current in the sinoatrial node (SAN) of the rabbit which was thought ‘funny’, as is unusual, since it was hyperpolarization-activated and carried by both sodium and potassium ions.1,2 Hence, its name If. The current is active in diastole between roughly –50 and –20 mV when it shuts down and is followed by the activation of the T-channel calcium current, which continues the process of diastolic depolarization. Accordingly, If contributes significantly to spontaneous pacemaker activity in the mammalian heart.1 The gene encoding the channel was first discovered in the mouse brain.3 Subsequently, in the cardiac tissue, four isoforms of the hyperpolarization-activated, cyclic nucleotide-gating channel protein (HCN 1,2,3,4) were identified.1,4 . . . [Full Text of this Article]


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Heart rate reduction with ivabradine improves energy metabolism and mechanical function of isolated ischaemic rabbit heart
Claudio Ceconi, Anna Cargnoni, Gloria Francolini, Giovanni Parinello, and Roberto Ferrari
Cardiovasc Res 2009 84: 72-82. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]