A Three Dimensional Ventricular E-Cell (3Dv E-Cell) with Stochastic Intracellular Ca~(2+) Handling

摘要

To investigate the mechanisms underlying the initiation and propagation of intracellular Ca~(2+) waves, we developed a three-dimensional ventricular E-Cell (3Dv E-Cell), where cell membrane, nucleus, ryanodine receptor clusters, Z-disk, cytoplasm are modeled as spatially distributed structures. For the simulation of Ca~(2+) sparks and Ca~(2+) diffusion, a modified Fire-Diffuse-Fire model is used with stochastic rules for triggering Ca~(2+) release. The 3Dv E-Cell is used to illustrate how stochastic properties of Ca~(2+) sparks can lead to complex spatio-temporal intracellular wave processes and allows the incorporation of spatial data sets (protein distribution) into the geometry.