Cellular and ionic basis of arrhythmias in postinfarction remodeled ventricular myocardium

After myocardial infarction (MI), the noninfarcted myocardium undergoes significant hypertrophy as part of the post-MI structural remodeling. Electrophysiological changes associated with the hypertrophied remodeled myocardium may play a key role in arrhythmia generation in the post-MI heart. We investigated the cellular and ionic basis of arrhythmias in remodeled left ventricular (LV) myocardium 3 to 4 weeks after MI in the rat. We analyzed (1) the incidence of induced ventricular tachyarrhythmias (VTs) in the in vivo heart, (2) action potential characteristics and arrhythmia mechanisms in multicellular preparations and isolated remodeled LV myocytes, and (3) the density and kinetics of the L-type Ca2+ current (I-Ca-L) and the fast and slow components of transient outward K+ currents (I-to-f and I-to-s, respectively). The results were compared with those from sham-operated rats. In vivo, programmed stimulation induced sustained VT in 80% of post-MI rats but not in sham-operated rats. The capacitance of post-MI hypertrophied myocytes was significantly increased compared with myocytes from sham-operated rats. Post-MI myocytes had prolonged action potential duration (APD) with marked heterogeneity of the time course of repolarization. The prolongation of APD could be explained by the significant decrease of the density of both I-to-f and I-to-s. There was no change in the kinetics of both currents compared with control. Both the density and kinetics of I-Ca-L were not significantly different in post-MI remodeled myocytes compared with control. The cellular studies showed that reentrant excitation secondary to dispersion of repolarization and triggered activity from both early and delayed afterdepolarizations are potential mechanisms for VT in the post-MI remodeled heart.