Auto-oscillation of striated muscle: a new insight into the mechanism of beating of heart muscle

2016 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 26400441
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Biological physics/Chemical physics/Soft matter physics
• Research Institution: Hokkaido University
• Principal Investigator: Sato Katsuhiko 北海道大学, 電子科学研究所, 准教授 (90513622)
• Co-Investigator(Renkei-kenkyūsha): KURAMOTO Yoshiki 京都大学, 理学部, 名誉教授 (40037247) ; ISHIWATA Shin'ichi 早稲田大学, 理工学術院, 名誉教授 (10130866)
• Research Collaborator: SHIMA Shin-ichiro 兵庫県立大学, 大学院・シミュレーション学研究科 ; NAKAGOME Koutaro 早稲田大学, 大学院・先進理工学研究科
• Project Period (FY): 2014-04-01 – 2017-03-31
• Keywords: 筋肉 / 自励振動 / 結合振動子 / 心筋 / 格子間隔仮説

Outline of Final Research Achievements

At an intermediate activation level, striated muscle shows auto-oscillation (spontaneous oscillatory contraction). This phenomenon is worth investigating, because this phenomenon is considered to be closely related to beating of heart muscle and have a common mechanism with it. In the previous works, we have focused on change in distance between actin and myosin filaments during contraction and succeeded in reproducing this auto-oscillation at both sarcomere and myofibril levels. In this work, we extended these models to the tissue level by connecting the myofibril models on their lateral sides. With this we not only reproduced oscillation patterns appearing in the bundle of myofibrils and but also predicted oscillation patterns that have not been observed yet. Besides, by investigating a phase model that describes the dynamics of oscillation in myofibril, we found a new oscillation patterns in which the oscillation of phase differences is locally unstable but globally attractive.

Free Research Field

ソフトマター物理学、生物物理学