Shannon, Wang, Puglisi, Weber, Bers, 2004

Model Status

This CellML model was created by Martin Fink of Oxford University using COR. In collaboration with the authors of the published model this CellML model has been modified such that it contains no typographical errors and is able to run in PCEnv and COR to produce an action potential. The units in this model have also been checked and curated.

Model Structure

Cardiac myocyte excitation-contraction coupling (ECC) is a complex process involving an array of different systems and proteins. While it is possible to study each of these systems in isolation, it is more meaningful to analyse them together, and mathematical models can facilitate this process. There are many examples of published mathematical models, based on experimental data, which describe the behaviour of the cardiac myocyte. Such models include:

  • McAllister et al., 1975.

  • Beeler and Reuter, 1977;

  • DiFrancesco and Noble, 1985;

  • Luo and Rudy II, 1994;

  • Priebe and Beuckelmann, 1998;

  • Jafri, Rice and Winslow, 1998;

  • Winslow et al., 1999;

  • Pandit et al., 2003;

  • Shiferaw et al., 2003; and

  • Bondarenko et al., 2004.

Since the publication of these models new experimental data has become available, and this has been incorporated into a new model of rabbit cardiac myocyte calcium and sodium homeostasis. In their model, described here in CellML, Shannon et al. include a subsarcolemmal compartment, together with junctional and bulk sarcolemmal compartments, physiologically realistic cytosolic calcium buffering parameter values, a reversible sarcoplasmic reticulum calcium pump, a sodium-calcium exchanger that is dependent on the concentration of intracellular sodium and is also regulated by calcium, and finally, a model of sarcoplasmic reticulum calcium release.

The complete original paper reference is cited below:

A mathematical treatment of integrated Ca dynamics within the ventricular myocyte, Thomas R. Shannon, Fei Wang, Jose Puglisi, Christopher Weber and Donald M. Bers, 2004, Biophysical Journal , 87, 3351-3371. (Full text (HTML) and PDF versions of the article are available to subscribers on the Biophysical Journal website.) PubMed ID: 15347581

A schematic diagram of the cell model which highlights the calcium- and sodium-dependent components of the model in particular.