Cellular electrical uncoupling during ischemia

In 1875 T.W. Engelmann wrote: "Solche Zellen, die whrend des Lebens mit Verlust ihrer eigenen physiologischen Individualitt mit anderen zu einem Individuum hoherer Ordnung verschmolzen sind, erhalten beim Absterben ihre Individualitt zuruck … Die Zellen leben zusammen, aber sterben einzeln". (1) In our translation: "Such cells, which during life, at the expense of their own identity, are joined with other cells to form an entity of higher order, regain their individuality when dying ... The cells live together, but die alone." Thus, Engelmann formulated on the one hand the concept that the normal heart functions as a syncytium, on the other hand that lethally injured cells become isolated from the rest of the heart, a phenomenon that later became known as "healing-over".