\ Projects \ Cardiac Cell Modelling

The pH regulatory system in cardiac myocytes is being modelled, along with its important interactions with the cell's Ca2+-regulatory and signalling apparatus. This task is being tackled by experimentally characterising, the ion-transport behaviour of pH-regulatory proteins in ventricular and atrial myocytes, as well as by experimentally determining the spatial expression of pHi-regulatory proteins within the cell which will be incorporated into contemporary 3-D reconstructions of the ventricular myocyte. this information will enale the assessment of how spatial control of pH, and the occurrence of spatial pH non-uniformity, impacts upon the three-dimensional control of Ca2+, and the spatial co-ordination of Ca2+-signalling and contraction in the cardiac myocyte.

 
 
 

Three-dimensional models incorporating pH-regulation and pH-Ca2+ interaction, will assist in the elucidation, at the cellular level, of more complex pathological conditions, such as myocardial ischaemia and hypoxia. They will also form the basis of computational models of multi-cellular myocardium.