In silico simulations of experimental protocols for cardiac modeling

A mathematical model of the AP involves the sum of different transmembrane ionic currents and the balance of intracellular ionic concentrations. To each ionic current corresponds an equation involving several effects. There are a number of model parameters that must be identified using specific experimental protocols in which the effects are considered as independent. However, when the model complexity grows, the interaction between effects becomes increasingly important. Therefore, model parameters identified considering the different effects as independent might be misleading. In this work, a novel methodology consisting in performing in silico simulations of the experimental protocol and then comparing experimental and simulated outcomes is proposed for parameter model identification and validation. The potential of the methodology is demonstrated by validating voltage-dependent L-type calcium current (ICaL) inactivation in recently proposed human ventricular AP models with different formulations. Our results show large differences between ICaL inactivation as calculated from the model equation and ICaL inactivation from the in silico simulations due to the interaction between effects and/or to the experimental protocol. Our results suggest that, when proposing any new model formulation, consistency between such formulation and the corresponding experimental data that is aimed at being reproduced needs to be first verified considering all involved factors.