Dept. Materials and Interfaces, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, IL 76100, Israel.
Soft Matter. 2016 Jul 13;12(28):6088-95. doi: 10.1039/c6sm00351f.
Motivated by recent experimental results, we study theoretically the synchronization of the beating phase and frequency of two nearby cardiomyocyte cells. Each cell is represented as an oscillating force dipole in an infinite, viscoelastic medium and the propagation of the elastic signal within the medium is predicted. We examine the steady-state beating of two nearby cells, and show that elastic interactions result in forces that synchronize the phase and frequency of beating in a manner that depends on their mutual orientation. The theory predicts both in-phase and anti-phase steady-state beating depending on the relative cell orientations, as well as how synchronized beating varies with substrate elasticity and the inter-cell distance. These results suggest how mechanics plays a role in cardiac efficiency, and may be relevant for the design of cardiomyocyte based micro devices and other biomedical applications.
受近期实验结果的启发，我们从理论上研究了两个相邻心肌细胞的相位和频率同步。每个细胞都被表示为一个在无限粘弹性介质中的振荡力偶极子，并且预测了弹性信号在介质中的传播。我们研究了两个相邻细胞的稳态搏动，并表明弹性相互作用会产生力，这些力以依赖于它们相互取向的方式同步搏动的相位和频率。该理论预测了根据相对细胞取向的同相和反相稳态搏动，以及与基质弹性和细胞间距离相关的同步搏动如何变化。这些结果表明力学如何在心脏效率中发挥作用，并且可能与基于心肌细胞的微器件和其他生物医学应用的设计有关。
