AuthorsK. G. Hustad, E. Ivanovic, A. L. Recha and A. A. Sakthivel
EditorsK. J. McCabe
TitleConduction Velocity in Cardiac Tissue as Function of Ion Channel Conductance and Distribution
AfilliationScientific Computing
Project(s)Department of Computational Physiology
StatusPublished
Publication TypeBook Chapter
Year of Publication2022
Book TitleComputational Physiology - Simula Summer School 2021 − Student Reports
Volume12
Chapter4
Pagination41 - 50
Date Published05/2022
PublisherSpringer International Publishing
Place PublishedCham
ISBN Number978-3-031-05163-0
ISBN2512-1677
Keywordsconduction velocity, EMI model, ion channels
Abstract

Ion channels on the membrane of cardiomyocytes regulate the propagation of action potentials from cell to cell and hence are essential for the proper function of the heart. Through computer simulations with the classical monodomain model for cardiac tissue and the more recent extracellular-membrane-intracellular (EMI) model where individual cells are explicitly represented, we investigated how conduction velocity (CV) in cardiac tissue depends on the strength of various ion currents as well as on the spatial distribution of the ion channels. Our simulations show a sharp decrease in CV when reducing the strength of the sodium (Na+) currents, whereas independent reductions in the potassium (K1 and Kr) and L-type calcium currents have negligible effect on the CV. Furthermore, we find that an increase in number density of Na+ channels towards the cell ends increases the CV, whereas a higher number density of K1 channels slightly reduces the CV. These findings contribute to the understanding of ion channels (e.g. Na+ and K+ channels) in the propagation velocity of action potentials in the heart.

URLhttps://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-031-05164-7_4
DOI10.1007/978-3-031-05164-7_4

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