期刊名称:Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
印刷版ISSN:0027-8424
电子版ISSN:1091-6490
出版年度:2010
卷号:107
期号:49
页码:20935-20940
DOI:10.1073/pnas.1010154107
语种:English
出版社:The National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
摘要:Existing models of electrical activity in myocardial tissue are unable to easily capture the effects of ephaptic coupling. Homogenized models do not account for cellular geometry, while detailed spatial models are too complicated to simulate in three dimensions. Here we propose a unique model that accurately captures the geometric effects while being computationally efficient. We use this model to provide an initial study of the effects of changes in extracellular geometry, gap junctional coupling, and sodium ion channel distribution on propagation velocity in a single 1D strand of cells. In agreement with previous studies, we find that ephaptic coupling increases propagation velocity at low gap junctional conductivity while it decreases propagation at higher conductivities. We also find that conduction velocity is relatively insensitive to gap junctional coupling when sodium ion channels are located entirely on the cell ends and cleft space is small. The numerical efficiency of this model, verified by comparison with more detailed simulations, allows a thorough study in parameter variation and shows that cellular structure and geometry has a nontrivial impact on propagation velocity. This model can be relatively easily extended to higher dimensions while maintaining numerical efficiency and incorporating ephaptic effects through modeling of complex, irregular cellular geometry.