Cardiac physiology plateau phase. The remaining Ca for contraction is released from storage in the sarcoplasmic reticulum. The pattern of prepotential or spontaneous depolarization, followed by rapid depolarization and repolarization just described, are seen in the SA node and a few other conductive cells in the heart. Since the SA node is the pacemaker, it reaches threshold faster than any other component of the conduction system. It will initiate the impulses spreading to the other conducting cells. The SA node, without nervous or endocrine control, would initiate a heart impulse approximately 80–100 times per minute. Although each component of the conduction system
Cardiac neural crest cells the young mice were tagged with enhanced green fluorescent protein (EGFP) and then traced. Tagged CNCCs were concentrated in the cardiac outflow tract, and some were found in the ventricular myocardium. These cells were also shown to be differentiating into cardiomyocytes as the heart grew. Although less were found, these EGFP-labelled CNCCs were still present in the adult heart. When a heart attack was induced, the CNCCs aggregated in the ischemic border zone area (an area of damaged tissue that can still be saved) and helped contribute to the regeneration of the tissue to some extent via differentiation into cardiomyocytes