Journal article

Examination of the Effects of Heterogeneous Organization of RyR Clusters, Myofibrils and Mitochondria on Ca2 Release Patterns in Cardiomyocytes

V Rajagopal, G Bass, CG Walker, DJ Crossman, A Petzer, A Hickey, I Siekmann, M Hoshijima, MH Ellisman, EJ Crampin, C Soeller

Plos Computational Biology | Published : 2015

Abstract

Spatio-temporal dynamics of intracellular calcium, [Ca2+]i, regulate the contractile function of cardiac muscle cells. Measuring [Ca2+]iflux is central to the study of mechanisms that underlie both normal cardiac function and calcium-dependent etiologies in heart disease. However, current imaging techniques are limited in the spatial resolution to which changes in [Ca2+]ican be detected. Using spatial point process statistics techniques we developed a novel method to simulate the spatial distribution of RyR clusters, which act as the major mediators of contractile Ca2+release, upon a physiologically-realistic cellular landscape composed of tightly-packed mitochondria and myofibrils. We appli..

View full abstract

University of Melbourne Researchers

Grants

Awarded by National Center for Research Resources


Funding Acknowledgements

This study was partly supported by the Royal Society of New Zealand Marsden Fast Start Grant 11-UOA-184 (http://www.royalsociety.org.nz/programmes/funds/marsden/), the Human Frontiers Science Program Research Grant RGP0027/2013 (http://www.hfsp.org), and the University of Melbourne Dyason Fellowship. This research was also supported by a Victorian Life Sciences Computation Initiative (VLSCI) grant number VR0313 on its Peak Computing Facility at the University of Melbourne, an initiative of the Victorian Government, Australia. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.