Microheterogeneity-induced conduction slowing and wavefront collisions govern macroscopic conduction behavior: A computational and experimental study.

ABSTRACT: The incidence of cardiac arrhythmias is known to be associated with tissue heterogeneities including fibrosis. However, the impact of microscopic structural heterogeneities on conduction in excitable tissues remains poorly understood. In this study, we investigated how acellular microheterogeneities affect macroscopic conduction under conditions of normal and reduced excitability by utilizing a novel platform of paired in vitro and in silico studies to examine the mechanisms of conduction. Regular patterns of nonconductive micro-obstacles were created in confluent monolayers of the previously described engineered-excitable Ex293 cell line. Increasing the relative ratio of obstacle size to intra-obstacle strand width resulted in significant conduction slowing up to 23.6% and a significant i

SUBMITTER: Gokhale TA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6062105 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature