Existence of excitation waves for a collection of cardiomyocytes electrically coupled to fibroblasts

Abstract

We consider mathematical models of a collection of cardiomyocytes (myocardial tissue) coupled to a varying number of fibroblasts. Our aim is to understand how conductivity ( δ) and fibroblast density ( η) affect the stability of the collection. We provide mathematical and computational arguments indicating that there is a region of instability in the η - δ space. Mathematical arguments, based on a simplified model of the coupled myocyte-fibroblast system, show that for certain parameter choices, a stationary solution cannot exist. Numerical experiments (1D, 2D) are based on a recently developed model of electro-chemical coupling between a human atrial myocyte and a number of associated atrial fibroblasts. The numerical experiments demonstrate that there is a region of instability of the form observed in the simplified model analysis.