The mammalian heart has four chambers--two atriums and two ventricles. The ventricles do much of the work of blood pumping, so understanding their properties is important to understanding heart function. From the cell level to the organ level, the ventricles of the heart are functionally and compositionally different. The left ventricle is a high pressure chamber that pumps oxygen-rich blood to the body and the right ventricle is a low pressure chamber that pumps oxygen-poor blood to the lungs. While this basic function is well understood, recent findings have shown that the ventricles respond to disease and therapy in different ways. Very little is known about what causes these differences. This research will further our understanding of the fundamental differences between the left and right ventricle. Also, the knowledge gained from this research may change some treatments of heart disease. Since cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death in the United States the discoveries from this research could have a significant effect on society. The research combines techniques and insights from several disciplines, including engineering, mathematics, physiology, and biomedical imaging. The project will include students at the university undergraduate level and also will reach out to educate local middle school students about heart health and research.
The goal of this research is to use novel multi-scale techniques to integrate cellular and organ level experimental measurements into a geometrically accurate bi-ventricular model of the heart. Ultimately, this work will create a more versatile and robust computational tool, which includes functional mechanisms that are not currently implemented in a simulation-based framework. The research plan will be accomplished using a systematic approach. First, organ level data will be collected in living animals using cardiac magnetic resonance imaging and catheterization in order to measure geometry, wall deformation, and pressure in each ventricle. Next, cellular level experiments will be conducted on cardiac myocytes from both ventricles in order to measure differences in force, calcium transients, and shortening velocity. Finally, computational algorithms will be developed to create multi-scale simulation models which couple function at the cell level to the organ level. The integration of this data will allow for a more accurate and realistic representation of the heart. By using a combination of both experimental and computational techniques, the differences in ventricular function will be elucidated.
