A Computational Model of Intracellular Calcium Oscillations in Urinary Bladder Smooth Muscle Cells

This paper presents a computational model for calcium (Ca2+) oscillations in detrusor smooth muscle (DSM) cells. The proposed model simulates the temporal profile of oscillations by incorporating various cellular and subcellular components. The cellular components include calcium influx via membrane and the plasma membrane calcium ATPase (PMCA) pump. The subcellular components include ryanodine receptors (RyRs), inositol 1, 4, 5 trisphosphate receptors (IP3Rs) and the sarco/endoplasmic reticulum calcium ATPase (SERCA) pump. The use of both cellular and subcellular components provides a better estimation of the origin and factors affecting these oscillations. Moreover, our work correlates these computational findings with associated physiology of the smooth muscle cell that aids our understanding of intracellular calcium oscillations and its inception in DSM. A deeper insight into calcium signalling in DSM cells is expected to provide a firmer basis for understanding the mechanical contractile activity.