Stochastic and spatial influences on drug-induced bifurcations in cardiac tissue culture.
The addition of a drug that specifically blocks a potassium channel in spontaneously beating aggregates of chick heart cells leads to complex bifurcations over time. A stochastic partial differential equation model based on discrete ionic currents recorded in these cells demonstrates that drug diffusion and noise can induce the coupled beats and bursting rhythms observed. These results provide further evidence that stochastic events at a subcellular level are needed to understand complex cardiac arrhythmias and play an important role in the onset of these arrhythmias.
Kim
Min-Young
MY
Department of Physiology, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
Aguilar
Martin
M
Hodge
Alex
A
Vigmond
Edward
E
Shrier
Alvin
A
Glass
Leon
L
D000818:Animals; D002642:Chick Embryo; D051638:Ether-A-Go-Go Potassium Channels / Q000037:antagonists & inhibitors*; D006321:Heart / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000502:physiology*; D008955:Models, Cardiovascular; D009206:Myocardium / Q000166:cytology / Q000378:metabolism; D013269:Stochastic Processes; D046509:Tissue Culture Techniques
D051638:Ether-A-Go-Go Potassium Channels