Abstract
Heart tissue is a functional syncytium composed of individual cells (Sjöstrand and Andersson, 1954) connected by nexuses (Barr et al., 1965; Fawcett and McNutt, 1969). Since electrical current flows across cell membranes and from cell to cell, rate and rhythm in normal whole heart must be regulated at the cellular level by intercellular resistance as well as by excitable membrane characteristics. Consequently changes in intercellular resistance may cause arrhythmias or changes in rate.
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© 1982 Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, The Hague
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Clapham, D.E., DeHaan, R.L. (1982). Intercellular Coupling between Embryonic Heart Cell Aggregates. In: Bouman, L.N., Jongsma, H.J. (eds) Cardiac Rate and Rhythm. Developments in Cardiovascular Medicine, vol 17. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-7535-4_14
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-7535-4_14
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