Electric Field Simulations Analysis to Obtain Functional Cardiomyocytes

The main cause of death worldwide is cardiac ischemia, an illness that produces the death of cardiomyocytes. These cells can't be replaced so the contractile function of the heart decreases. Tissue engineering promise is a solution to this problem through the development of a cardiac scaffold in vitro, to replace the necrotic tissue. The electric stimulation in vitro has shown improvement of the functional characteristics of the cardiomyocytes, being the electric field used in some studies to stimulate the cells before the implantation. This project evaluates the distribution and concentration of an electric field of an electrostimulation system. The system was designed like a circuit, formed by two electrodes with electric properties of graphite and an electrolytic solution represented by the cardiomyocytes differentiation medium. The electrodes were configured vertically and horizontally to study the field distribution; according to the selected electric field in the electrostimulation space. These simulations and the graphics presented were obtained with the software COMSOL Multiphysics. The results show the vertical configuration of the electrodes having the behavior of punctual charges while the horizontal configuration had parallel plaques behavior. Furthermore, the values of the electric field vary in the space near the electrodes because of the higher concentration of the field there. The horizontal configuration was determined as the best for the electrodes. Additionally, because of the higher concentration around the electrodes, the scaffold had to be placed at least 0,1 cm from them.