Abstract
Human atrial fibroblasts and their contribution to supraventricular arrhythmia.
Highlights
Fibroblasts secrete the extracellular matrix and can thereby affect cardiac electrophysiology by separating strands of cardiomyocytes with interstitial fibrosis
Functional coupling between fibroblasts and cardiomyocytes has not been shown in human tissue; in animal models and cell cultures, it has been demonstrated that fibroblasts and cardiomyocytes can couple electrically to each other (Camelliti et al 2004)
The fibroblasts have a less negative membrane potential (À50 to À10 mV; Kohl and Gourdie 2014), so when the fibroblasts are coupled to cardiomyocytes, depolarization of the cardiomyocytes will generate a flow of gap junctional current into the fibroblasts
Summary
Fibroblasts secrete the extracellular matrix and can thereby affect cardiac electrophysiology by separating strands of cardiomyocytes with interstitial fibrosis. This can affect the electrical properties of the cardiomyocytes, both passively and actively. Fibroblasts are electrically nonexcitable (i.e., they do not make action potentials), but they have a high membrane resistance, and efficient coupling to a cardiomyocyte causes a dilution of the current density when membrane area increases without an increase in the number of ion channels.
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