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Acute effects of ethanol on action potential and intracellular Ca2+ transient in cardiac ventricular cells: a simulation study

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Abstract

Alcohol consumption may result in electrocardiographic changes and arrhythmias, at least partly due to effects of ethanol on cardiac ionic currents. Contractility and intracellular Ca2+ dynamics seem to be altered as well. In this study, we integrated the available (mostly animal) experimental data into previously published models of the rat and human ventricular myocytes to assess the share of ionic current components in ethanol-induced changes in AP configuration and cytosolic Ca2+ transient in ventricular cardiomyocytes. The rat model reproduced well the experimentally observed changes in AP duration (APD) under ethanol (slight prolongation at 0.8 mM and shortening at ≥8 mM). These changes were almost exclusively caused by the ethanol-induced alterations of I K1. The cytosolic Ca2+ transient decreased gradually with the increasing ethanol concentration as a result of the ethanol-induced inhibition of I Ca. In the human model, ethanol produced a dose-dependent APD lengthening, dominated by ethanol effect on I Kr, the key repolarising current in human ventricles. This effect might contribute to the clinically observed proarrhythmic effects of ethanol in predisposed individuals.

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Acknowledgments

This study was realised with the institutional support RVO: 61388998 and with the support of the Grant Project NT14301-3/2013 from the Ministry of Health of the Czech Republic. Georges Christé’s work was supported by Université Lyon 1 research allowances to the EA4612 Neurocardiology Unit.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Thermomechanics - Branch Brno, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Technická 2, 616 69, Brno, Czech Republic

    Michal Pásek

  2. Department of Physiology, Faculty of Medicine, Masaryk University, Kamenice 5, 625 00, Brno, Czech Republic

    Michal Pásek, Markéta Bébarová, Milena Šimurdová & Jiří Šimurda

  3. Laboratoire de Neurocardiologie, EA4612, Université Lyon 1, Lyon, 69003, France

    Georges Christé

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  1. Michal Pásek
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  2. Markéta Bébarová
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Correspondence to Michal Pásek.

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Pásek, M., Bébarová, M., Christé, G. et al. Acute effects of ethanol on action potential and intracellular Ca2+ transient in cardiac ventricular cells: a simulation study. Med Biol Eng Comput 54, 753–762 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11517-015-1366-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11517-015-1366-8

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