title: Arrhythmogenic role of the border between two areas of cardiac cell alignment.
abstract: The goal of this study is to develop experimental and computational models of the excitation transition between areas of cardiac tissue with different anatomical anisotropy. Alignment of seeded neonatal rat cardiomyocytes was achieved with the aid of guiding polymer (PMGI) nanofibers, and two areas with orthogonal alignment were placed into a contact. It was found that the excitation wave crossing border between the areas with different alignment direction experiences substantial perturbation, up to the complete conduction block. In addition to the experimental study, this effect was analyzed computationally using generic FitzHugh-Nagumo reaction-diffusion model. It was shown that the non-monotonous changes of the excitation wave velocity on this boundary may be explained by the source/sink mismatch. Thus, the border may play pro-arrhythmogenic role.
authors.affiliation: MIPT Life Science Center, Institutsky pereulok 9, Dolgoprudny, Moscow Region 141700, Russia.
authors.forename: N N
authors.initials: NN
authors.lastname: Kudryashova
authors.affiliation: MIPT Life Science Center, Institutsky pereulok 9, Dolgoprudny, Moscow Region 141700, Russia.
authors.forename: A S
authors.initials: AS
authors.lastname: Teplenin
authors.affiliation: iCeMS Research Building, Yoshida Honmachi, Sakyo-ku, Kyoto 606-8501, Japan.
authors.forename: Y V
authors.initials: YV
authors.lastname: Orlova
authors.affiliation: MIPT Life Science Center, Institutsky pereulok 9, Dolgoprudny, Moscow Region 141700, Russia.
authors.forename: L V
authors.initials: LV
authors.lastname: Selina
authors.affiliation: MIPT Life Science Center, Institutsky pereulok 9, Dolgoprudny, Moscow Region 141700, Russia. Electronic address: agladze@yahoo.com.
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Agladze
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D016880:Anisotropy; D048430:Cell Shape; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D003198:Computer Simulation; D004058:Diffusion; D055664:Electrochemical Techniques; D006327:Heart Block / Q000473:pathology*; D006329:Heart Conduction System; D008954:Models, Biological; D032383:Myocytes, Cardiac / Q000502:physiology*; D057139:Nanofibers / Q000737:chemistry; D011108:Polymers / Q000737:chemistry; D051381:Rats; D017208:Rats, Wistar; D013499:Surface Properties
chemical_list: D011108:Polymers
keywords: Cardiomyocytes; Excitation; FitzHugh–Nagumo model; Optical mapping; Tissue culture