Session 3G: Finding the Best Method to Wound the Hearts of Drosophila melanogaster larvae

Myocardial infarction is a very common cause of cardiac injury in humans. Unfortunately, the human heart cannot regenerate the cells that die as a result of cardiac disease. Progressive loss of these cardiac cells can eventually lead to heart failure. A solution to this problem could be to use regenerative methods to replenish the myocardial cells. Drosophila melanogaster is a very effective tool to study cardiac regeneration and its mechanisms. To study this, however, an effective method to wound the heart of Drosophila melanogaster larvae must be found. I tested two wounding methods, pinching and poking, on third instar hand-GAL4,UAS—mcherry / CyOAct:GFP larvae in which the myocardial cells emitted red fluorescence. Through various tests such as pupariation assays, I found the best way to wound the hearts of Drosophila melanogaster larvae. Due to the extensive homologs between Drosophila and humans, information found on the possible regeneration of myocardial cells in Drosophila can have beneficial implications on humans as well