Temperature influence on a linear array of coupled Sal'nikov oscillators: the muscle fiber scenario

Abstract

Muscles are thermogenic organs for adult mammals and birds but can also be thermosensitive. In this respect, recent research has shown the excitability of cardiac muscle tissue when irradiated with infrared laser light. Likewise, intrinsic muscle function should give place to local thermal gradients, either because of Ca2+-ATPase thermoregulatory mechanisms or, specifically in the skeletal muscle, after intense exercise. Alongside internal thermal gradients, muscle fatigue characterizes by stressful cellular conditions. Similar to stress-like conditions has been documented in myocytes from rats, the emergence of oscillations of important biochemical species [1]. We show how a thermal gradient or a thermal pulse influences the dynamics of biochemical oscillations in a simplified biochemical model of muscle fiber and discuss the consequences in a living muscle. For this purpose, each simplified sarcomere behavior is governed according to a modified Sal'nikov model, as proposed in a previous paper [2].