Iyer, Mazhari, Winslow, 2004

Model Status

This version of the model has been completely recoded by Steven Niederer of Oxford University. This version is more accurate than version 03 but runs slower. This model is known to run in PCEnv 0.2 and COR and reproduces the results of the publication on which it is based.

Model Structure

Computational models of the mammalian ventricular myocyte have played a significant role in improving our understanding of the molecular mechanisms underlying the ventricular action potential, both in the normal, healthy individual and also in diseased states. As experimental techniques have become more sophisticated, more detailed biophysical data have been generated, and in turn, the mathematical models which are based on this data have also become more complex and physiologically more accurate. Examples of such computational models include:

  • The Luo-Rudy Ventricular Model I, 1991;

  • The Luo-Rudy Ventricular Model II (dynamic), 1994;

  • The Noble et al. Ventricular Cell Model, 1998;

  • The Priebe and Beuckelmann, Electrophysiological Model of the Human Ventricular Myocyte, 1998;

  • The Winslow et al. Canine Ventricular Cell Model, 1999;

  • and most recently, The Ten Tusscher et al. Model For Human Ventricular Tissue, 2004.

Please note that this list is not exhaustive and there are more examples of ventricular myocyte models (some of which can be found in the Ventricular Myocyte section of the CellML model repository).

The Priebe-Beuckelmann model and the Ten Tusscher et al. models are able to adequately describe the qualitative features of the human ventricular action potential and also the calcium transient morphology, however, these models utilise little of the existing experimental data on channel properties, whole-cell currents, excitation-contraction coupling, or on the processes which regulate intracellular sodium concentration. By contrast, in the Iyer et al. 2004 publication described here, the authors use this more extensive experimental data to develop their computational model of the human left-ventricular epicardial myocyte (see the figure below). The resulting model displays long-term stability of intracellular ion concentrations over a range of pacing frequencies, and it is also able to reproduce and predict the diverse behaviours which have been measured experimentally in isolated human ventricular myocytes.

The complete original paper reference is cited below:

A Computational Model of the Human Left-Ventricular Epicardial Myocyte, Vivek Iyer, Reza Mazhari and Raimond L. Winslow, 2004, Biophysical Journal , 87, 1507-1525. (Full text (HTML) and PDF versions of the article are available to subscribers on the Biophysical Journal website.) PubMed ID: 15345532

A schematic diagram describing the ion movement across the cell surface membrane and the sarcoplasmic reticulum, which are described by the Iyer et al. 2004 mathematical model of the human left-ventricular epicardial myocyte.