Effects of the fibroblast-myocyte in cardiac electromechanical coupling: A preliminary simulation study

The heart consists of myocytes, vasculature cells and connective tissue cells. In this study, two ventricular electromechanical models were coupled with the fibroblast model. At the cellular level, Niederer-Smith (NS) model of rat ventricular myocyte and ten Tusscher model of human ventricular myocyte and the passive fibroblast model are combined with Rice model of contraction and cooperativity mechanisms. At the tissue level, excited conduction is integrated with elastic mechanics. Numerically, the finite difference method solves the excitation equations, and the finite element method settles the equations governing tissue mechanics. The results showed that fibroblasts slow down wave propagation and increase mesh contraction. The influence of fibroblasts on cardiac excitation and contraction should be pursued in future heart modeling studies.