A physiologically based, multi-scale model of skeletal muscle structure and function
Models of skeletal muscle can be classified as phenomenological or biophysical. Phenomenological models predict the muscle's response to a specified input based on experimental measurements. Prominent phenomenological models are the Hill-type muscle models, which have been incorporated into rig...
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Published in | Frontiers in physiology Vol. 3; p. 358 |
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Main Authors | , , |
Format | Journal Article |
Language | English |
Published |
Switzerland
Frontiers Research Foundation
01.01.2012
Frontiers Media S.A |
Subjects | |
Online Access | Get full text |
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Summary: | Models of skeletal muscle can be classified as phenomenological or biophysical. Phenomenological models predict the muscle's response to a specified input based on experimental measurements. Prominent phenomenological models are the Hill-type muscle models, which have been incorporated into rigid-body modeling frameworks, and three-dimensional continuum-mechanical models. Biophysically based models attempt to predict the muscle's response as emerging from the underlying physiology of the system. In this contribution, the conventional biophysically based modeling methodology is extended to include several structural and functional characteristics of skeletal muscle. The result is a physiologically based, multi-scale skeletal muscle finite element model that is capable of representing detailed, geometrical descriptions of skeletal muscle fibers and their grouping. Together with a well-established model of motor-unit recruitment, the electro-physiological behavior of single muscle fibers within motor units is computed and linked to a continuum-mechanical constitutive law. The bridging between the cellular level and the organ level has been achieved via a multi-scale constitutive law and homogenization. The effect of homogenization has been investigated by varying the number of embedded skeletal muscle fibers and/or motor units and computing the resulting exerted muscle forces while applying the same excitatory input. All simulations were conducted using an anatomically realistic finite element model of the tibialis anterior muscle. Given the fact that the underlying electro-physiological cellular muscle model is capable of modeling metabolic fatigue effects such as potassium accumulation in the T-tubular space and inorganic phosphate build-up, the proposed framework provides a novel simulation-based way to investigate muscle behavior ranging from motor-unit recruitment to force generation and fatigue. |
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Bibliography: | ObjectType-Article-1 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-2 content type line 23 This article was submitted to Frontiers in Striated Muscle Physiology, a specialty of Frontiers in Physiology. Edited by: Christina Karatzaferi, University of Thessaly, Greece Reviewed by: Alf Mansson, Linnaeus University, Sweden; Costis Maganaris, Manchester Metropolitan University, UK |
ISSN: | 1664-042X 1664-042X |
DOI: | 10.3389/fphys.2012.00358 |