title: Qualitative modeling of mechanoelectrical feedback in a ventricular cell.
abstract: Mechanical changes in the heart muscle can influence its electrical properties through a process called mechanoelectrical feedback (MEF). This feedback can operate via changes in calcium dynamics during the cross-bridge cycle or via mechanosensitive (stretch-activated) channels. We present a four-variable ordinary differential equation (ODE) system that caricatures the electrical and mechanical activity of a ventricular cell and their mutual interactions. A three-variable excitable system with restitution properties of the FitzHugh-Nagumo type is coupled to a fourth equation which describes changes in cell length during a lightly loaded contraction. The resulting four-variable system models MEF in a cell and can be incorporated into spatially distributed models for mechanoelectric behavior during wave propagation in the cardiac tissue.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physiology, University of Leeds, U.K. zuzana@cbiol.leeds.ac.uk
authors.forename: Z
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Knudsen
authors.forename: A V
authors.initials: AV
authors.lastname: Holden
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Brindley
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001696:Biomechanical Phenomena; D004594:Electrophysiology; D005246:Feedback; D006321:Heart / Q000502:physiology*; D066298:In Vitro Techniques; D008433:Mathematics; D008955:Models, Cardiovascular