2009 Math Biology Seminar - 02

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.