BIOMECHANICAL MODELLING OF GASTROINTESTINAL SMOOTH MUSCLE

Abstract

Gastrointestinal motility is the result of highly coordinated contraction and relaxation patterns generated by smooth muscle cells to mix and transport ingested food along the GI tract. The contraction patterns of the wall are controlled by the underlying electrical activity of the pacemaker cells and SMC. This electrical activity, known as slow waves, regulates motility in the GI tract. Thus, it is of paramount importance to investigate and understand the underlying root causes of these functional disorders to medicate and alleviate them with an evidence-based approach. Over the past few years, mathematical models have frequently been adopted to quantify the healthy and diseased states of GI tissues. This approach has provided a succinct description of the complex electromechanical interactions in smooth muscles. However, the existing approaches utilize simplified mechanics and electrophysiology models to describe the complex GI electromechanics. Thus, this research study has been undertaken to develop a fully coupled electromechanical model of the GI tract to study the physiology and pathophysiology of motility disorders.