Saftenku, Williams, Sitsapesan, 2001

Model Structure

In cardiac cells, Ca²⁺ influx through L-type Ca²⁺-channels triggers the opening of ryanodine receptor (RyR) channels, thereby releasing Ca²⁺ from the sarcoplasmic reticulum (SR) causing muscle contraction. The mechanisms underlying Ca²⁺ activation and inactivation of RyR channels have been extensively studied. In their 2001 paper, Elena Saftenku, Alan J. Williams and Rebecca Sitsapesan found that the gating of RyR channels spontaneously shifts between high (H) and low (L) levels of activity and that there is evidence for multiple gating modes within H activity (H1 and H2). They propose distinct kinetic schemes for L, H1, and H2 activity that describe the major features of cardiac RyR channel gating (see below).

The complete original paper reference is cited below:

Markovian Models Of Low And High Activity Levels Of Cardiac Ryanodine Receptors, Elena Saftenku, Alan J. Williams and Rebecca Sitsapesan, 2001, Biophysical Journal , 80, 2727-2741. (Full text and PDF versions of the article are available to subscribers on the Biophysical Journal website.) PubMed ID: 11371448

The raw CellML descriptions of the markovian models of low and high activity levels of cardiac ryanodine receptors can be downloaded in various formats as described in .

Kinetic models of the gating of cardiac ryanodine receptors at low and high levels of activity.