MioLab: Simulator for cardiac myocyte contractile force of rat based on the dynamics of calcium

MioLab, a rat cardiac contractile force simulator: Applications to teaching cardiac cell physiology and biophysics

“…Thus, it is possible to analyze factors that may lead to arrhythmias and study the partial effects of drugs that are used in the treatment of cardiovascular diseases [7] and act on specific components of cardiac cells. The simulations presented here are related to answers of the activities 1 and 3 proposed in Section 2.…”

“…With this simulator, it is possible to reproduce Ca 2+ dynamics and contractile forces in rats' cardiac myocytes and execute virtual experiments on application of drugs in a cardiac cell organelle. The model validation can be found in Silva et al [7].…”

“…The whole model has 9 coupled differential equations, 15 auxiliary equations and 47 biophysical parameters. A full description of the mathematical model used for the development of the MioLab ® simulator and its validation can be found in Silva et al [7]. The activity diagram describing the sequence of steps to perform a simulation is shown in Fig.…”

“…The concentration of Ca 2+ at rest ([Ca 2+ ] r ) is given by 0.10 M. The parameters used in this simulation were adjusted in order to obtain a simulation of the transient Ca 2+ similar to experimental results reported in Silva et al [7]. Using the "View Data" menu, it is possible to verify what the influence of the Ca 2+ influx was in other output variables such as transitory Ca 2+ and contractile force (Fig.…”

“…MioLab ® offers, as a distinction if compared with other simulators, tutorials, videos and animations that can be useful for teaching cardiac myocytes' physiological and biophysical processes. The first version of the MioLab ® simulator was developed for research on bioengineering [7]. In that article, the authors describe in detail the mathematical model on which the design of the MioLab ® simulator was based, as well as the validation of the simulator using experimental data.…”