2009 Math Biology Seminar - 02
- Date: 01/29/2009
University of British Columbia
Synchronization of cardiac cells growing in culture
Synchronization of heterogeneous systems consisted of oscillatory and
passive elements are studied in cardiac myocytes (CM)/fibroblasts (FB)
co-cultures. It is found that beating clusters of CM surrounded by FB
will be formed. The beatings of the CM clusters are not correlated at
early times but get synchronized as the cultures mature. This
synchronization can be understood by a Kuramoto model with a time
increasing coupling strength. Our findings show that the growth of the
coupling strength between clusters is linear while the overall wave
dynamics of the system is controlled by the passive FB in the system
which presumably is growing exponentially. The variations of the
frequencies towards synchronization are also modeled b y the "frequency
enhancement" effect for coupled excitable/oscillatory elements.
2:00pm, WMAX 216
