Self-organization of conducting pathways explains electrical wave propagation in cardiac tissues with high fraction of non-conducting cells.

ABSTRACT: Cardiac fibrosis occurs in many forms of heart disease and is considered to be one of the main arrhythmogenic factors. Regions with a high density of fibroblasts are likely to cause blocks of wave propagation that give rise to dangerous cardiac arrhythmias. Therefore, studies of the wave propagation through these regions are very important, yet the precise mechanisms leading to arrhythmia formation in fibrotic cardiac tissue remain poorly understood. Particularly, it is not clear how wave propagation is organized at the cellular level, as experiments show that the regions with a high percentage of fibroblasts (65-75%) are still conducting electrical signals, whereas geometric analysis of randomly distributed conducting and non-conducting cells predicts connectivity loss at 40% at the most

SUBMITTER: Kudryashova N 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6438583 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature