Abstract:
The sinoatrial node (SAN) is the normal pacemaker of the mammalian heart. Over several decades, a large amount of data on the ionic mechanisms underlying the spontaneous electrical activity of SAN pacemaker cells has been obtained, mostly in experiments on single cells isolated from rabbit SAN. This wealth of data has allowed the development of mathematical models of the electrical activity of rabbit SAN pacemaker cells. However, the translation of animal data/models to humans is not straightforward. Even less so for SAN pacemaker cells than working myocar- dial cells given the big di↵erence in their main output (i.e. pacing rate) between human and laboratory animals. The development of a comprehensive model of the electrical activity of a human SAN pacemaker cell strictly based on and constrained by the available electrophysiological data will be presented. We started from the Severi-DiFrancesco rabbit SAN model, which integrates the two principal mecha- nisms that determine the beating rate: the ”membrane clock” and ”calcium clock”. Several current formulations were updated based on available measurements. A set of parameters, for which no specific data were available, were automatically opti- mized to reproduce the measured AP and calcium transient data. The model was then validated by assessing the e↵ects of several mutations a↵ecting heart rate and rate modulation. Moreover, two recent applications of the model will be presented: i) We used our SAN AP computational model to assess the e↵ects of the inclu- sion of the small conductance K+ current (ISK) on the biomarkers that describe the AP waveform and calcium transient; ii) We analysed the e↵ect of altered elec- trolyte levels (as systematically occurring in hemodialysis patients) on pacemaking to investigate the possible mechanisms of the bradycardic sudden cardiac deaths pointed out by two recent human studies using implantable loop recorders.