"THEORY & COMP IN MOL BIO PHY", AUG 9-20, 2006, LA JOLLA, CA

这个子项目是许多利用 由NIH/NCRR资助的中心赠款提供的资源。子项目和 研究者（PI）可能从另一个NIH来源获得了主要资金， 因此可以在其他CRISP条目中表示。所列机构为 研究中心，而研究中心不一定是研究者所在的机构。 在正常的心脏传导中，大致直线的电激活波引起肌肉收缩波，即心跳。在心室颤动（VF）中，心脏性猝死的主要原因，电激活波分裂成多波混沌状态。我们的研究集中在这个问题上：为什么波浪会破裂？ 传统的观点认为，波被解剖异质性打破：纤维化、梗死和细胞间电耦合丧失等因素被认为起着决定性作用。 然而，非线性动力学家提出了另一种机制：由反应扩散偏微分方程控制的直线波，即使在完全均匀的组织中，由于电不稳定性，也会变得不稳定并破裂。 我们在心脏组织准备方面的工作表明，解决这些电不稳定性的干预措施可以防止纤颤。（Garfinkel，Kim等人，2000年） 本研究的目的是回答这样的问题：这两种类型的因素（解剖异质性和纯粹的动力学不稳定性）在产生和维持纤颤中有多重要？ 它们如何相互作用？

This subproject is one of many research subprojects utilizing the resources provided by a Center grant funded by NIH/NCRR. The subproject and investigator (PI) may have received primary funding from another NIH source, and thus could be represented in other CRISP entries. The institution listed is for the Center, which is not necessarily the institution for the investigator. In normal cardiac conduction, a roughly rectilinear wave of electrical activation causes the wave of muscular contraction that is the heartbeat. In ventricular fibrillation (VF), the leading cause of sudden cardiac death, the wave of electrical activation breaks up into a multi-wave chaotic state. Our research has focused on the question: why does the wave break up? The traditional view was that the wave was broken up by anatomic heterogeneity: such factors as fibrosis, infarct, and loss of cell-to-cell electrical coupling were thought to play the decisive role. However, nonlinear dynamicists have proposed another mechanism: rectilinear waves, governed by reaction-diffusion partial differential equations, can become unstable and break up, even in perfectly homogeneous tissue, due to electrical instabilities. Our work in cardiac tissue preparations has shown that interventions that address these electrical instabilities can prevent fibrillation. (Garfinkel, Kim et al. 2000) The objective of this research is to answer the questions: how important are these two types of factors (anatomical heterogeneity and purely dynamical instability) in generating and sustaining fibrillation? How do they interact?