Drift and termination of spiral waves in optogenetically modified cardiac tissue at sub-threshold illumination
Abstract
The development of new approaches to control cardiac arrhythmias requires a deeptextlessbrtextgreaterunderstanding of spiral wave dynamics. Optogenetics offers new possibilities for this. Preliminarytextlessbrtextgreaterexperiments show that sub-threshold illumination affects electrical wave propagation in the mousetextlessbrtextgreaterheart. However, a systematic exploration of these effects is technically challenging. Here, we usetextlessbrtextgreaterstate-of-the-art computer models to study the dynamic control of spiral waves in a two-dimensionaltextlessbrtextgreatermodel of the adult mouse ventricle, using stationary and non-stationary patterns of sub-thresholdtextlessbrtextgreaterillumination. Our results indicate a light-intensity-dependent increase in cellular resting membranetextlessbrtextgreaterpotentials, which together with diffusive cell-cell coupling leads to the development of spatialtextlessbrtextgreatervoltage gradients over differently illuminated areas. A spiral wave drifts along the positivetextlessbrtextgreatergradient. These gradients can be strategically applied to ensure drift-induced termination of atextlessbrtextgreaterspiral wave, both in optogenetics and in conventional methods of electrical defibrillation.
