Mathematical Model of the Electromechanical Heart Contractile System
Catherine
Lloyd
Bioengineering Institute, University of Auckland
Model Structure
Computational modelling in molecular cardiology has recently focused on simulating subsets of myocardial excitation-contraction processes. As people try to improve their understanding of myocardial function, there is an increasing interest in excitation-contraction coupling and mechanical events in cardiac muscle. It is hoped that these computer simulations will also help explain the pathophysiological mechanisms of heart failure.
In their 2001 paper, Mlcek, Neumann, Kittnar and Novak concentrate on the molecular level of electromechanical events in cardiac muscle. They introduce an actomyosin subsystem accompanied by a simple regulatory subsystem involving calcium binding to troponin C (see below). They performed many simulations to prove the stability of their model and they then used the simulation results to help interpret experimental and clinical data.
The complete original paper reference is cited below:
Mathematical Model of the Electromechanical Heart Contractile System - Regulatory Subsystem Physiological Considerations, M. Mlcek, J. Neumann, O. Kittnar and V. Novak, 2001,
Physiological Research
, 50, 425-432. (A PDF version of the article is also available on the Physiological Research journal website.) PubMed ID: 11551150
The raw CellML descriptions of the model can be downloaded in various formats as described in .
reaction_diagram
Diagram of the regulatory subsystem scheme and the actomyosin subsystem scheme.
cardiac myocyte
Molecular Mechanisms
Cardiac Myocyte
electrophysiology
myofilament mechanics
cardiac
Mathematical Model of the Electromechanical Heart Contractile System - Regulatory Subsystem Physiological Considerations
50
425
432
Actin-Myosin-ADP-Pi
A_M_ADP_Pi
Actin
A
Mlcek et al's 2001 mathematical model of the elctromechanical heart
contractile system
Cardiac Myocyte
Homo sapiens
The University of Auckland, Bioengineering Institute
Myosin-ADP-Pi
M_ADP_Pi
keyword
Physiological Research
11551150
Troponin C
TnC
2007-05-23T00:00:00+00:00
c.lloyd@auckland.ac.nz
Catherine
Lloyd
May
J
Neumann
Myosin-ATP
M_ATP
2001
intracellular free calcium
Cai
2007-06-05T09:45:51+12:00
The new version of this model has been re-coded to remove the reaction element and replace it with a simple MathML description of the model reaction kinetics. This is thought to be truer to the original publication, and information regarding the enzyme kinetics etc will later be added to the metadata through use of an ontology.
The model does not run in the PCEnv simulator because it is underconstrained. I have contacted the authors of the original publication and I have requested the parameter values.
M
Mlcek
V
Novak
Actin-Myosin-ATP
A_M_ATP
sarcoplasmic reticulum calcium
CaF
Actomyosin-ADP
AM_ADP
Catherine
Lloyd
May
O
Kittnar
Below is a CellML description of Mlcek et al's mathematical model of
the elctromechanical heart contractile system.
Rate constants for the reactions were not specified in the original
paper, therefore in the CellML description they have been set at a
default value of 1.0. Similarly, initial concentrations were not
defined so these have been set at a default value of 1 micromolar.
Actomyosin
AM
The University of Auckland
The Bioengineering Institute