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Interactions Between Connected Half-Sarcomeres Produce Emergent Mechanical Behavior In A Mathematical Model Of Muscle, Kenneth S. Campbell

Physiology Faculty Publications

Most reductionist theories of muscle attribute a fiber's mechanical properties to the scaled behavior of a single half-sarcomere. Mathematical models of this type can explain many of the known mechanical properties of muscle but have to incorporate a passive mechanical component that becomes approximately 300% stiffer in activating conditions to reproduce the force response elicited by stretching a fast mammalian muscle fiber. The available experimental data suggests that titin filaments, which are the mostly likely source of the passive component, become at most approximately 30% stiffer in saturating Ca2+ solutions. The work described in this manuscript used computer modeling to …