Functional intercellular coupling has been demonstrated among networks of cardiac fibroblasts, as well as between fibroblasts and atrial or ventricular myocytes. In this study, the consequences of these interactions were examined by implementing the ten Tusscher model of the human ventricular action potential, and coupling it to our electrophysiological models for mammalian ventricular fibroblasts. Our simulations reveal significant electrophysiological consequences of coupling between 1 and 4 fibroblasts to a single ventricular myocyte. These include alterations in plateau height and/or action potential duration (APD) and changes in underlying ionic currents. Two series of simulations were carried out. First, fibroblasts were modeled as a spherical cell with a capacitance of 6.3 pF and an ohmic membrane resistance of 10.7 G Omega. When these "passive" fibroblasts were coupled to a myocyte, they caused slight prolongation of APD with no changes in the plateau, threshold for firing, or rate of initial depolarization. In contrast, when the same myocyte-fibroblast complexes were modeled after addition of the time- and voltage-gated K(+) currents that are expressed in fibroblasts, much more pronounced effects were observed: the plateau height of the action potential was reduced and the APD shortened significantly. In addition, each fibroblast exhibited significant electrotonic depolarizations in response to each myocyte action potential and the resting potential of the fibroblasts closely approximated the resting potential of the coupled ventricular myocyte.
Calmodulin regulation of CaV channels is a prominent Ca2+ feedback mechanism orchestrating vital adjustments of Ca2+ entry. The long-held structural correlate of this regulation has been Ca2+-bound calmodulin complexed alone with an IQ domain on the channel carboxy terminus. Here, however, systematic alanine mutagenesis of the entire carboxyl tail of an L-type CaV1.3 channel casts doubt on this paradigm. To identify the actual molecular states underlying channel regulation, we develop a structure-function approach relating the strength of regulation to the affinity of underlying calmodulin/channel interactions, by a Langmuir relation (iTL analysis). Accordingly, we uncover frank exchange of Ca2+-calmodulin to interfaces beyond the IQ domain, initiating substantial rearrangements of the calmodulin/channel complex. The N-lobe of Ca2+-calmodulin binds an NSCaTE module on the channel amino terminus, while the C-lobe binds an EF-hand region upstream of the IQ domain. This system of structural plasticity furnishes a next-generation blueprint for CaV channel modulation.
SUMMARY CaV1.3 ion channels are dominant Ca2+ portals into pacemaking neurons, residing at the epicenter of brain rhythmicity and neurodegeneration. Negative Ca2+ feedback regulation of CaV1.3 channels (CDI) is therefore critical for Ca2+ homeostasis. Intriguingly, nearly half the CaV1.3 transcripts in brain are RNA edited to reduce CDI and influence oscillatory activity. It is then mechanistically remarkable that this editing occurs precisely within an IQ domain, whose interaction with Ca2+-bound calmodulin (Ca2+/CaM) is believed to induce CDI. Here we sought the mechanism underlying the altered CDI of edited channels. Unexpectedly, editing failed to attenuate Ca2+/CaM binding. Instead, editing weakened the prebinding of Ca2+-free CaM (apoCaM) to channels, which proves essential for CDI. Thus, editing might render CDI continuously tunable by fluctuations in ambient CaM, a prominent effect we substantiate in substantia nigral neurons. This adjustability of Ca2+ regulation by CaM now looms as a key element of CNS Ca2+ homeostasis.
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