FIM: A fatigued-injured muscle model based on the sliding filament theory

Abstract

Skeletal muscle modeling has a vital role in movement studies and the development of therapeutic approaches. In the current study, a Huxley-based model for skeletal muscle is proposed, which demonstrates the impact of impairments in muscle characteristics. This model focuses on three identified ions: H⁺, inorganic phosphate P_i, and Ca²⁺. Modifications are made to actin-myosin attachment and detachment rates to study the effects of H⁺ and P_i. Additionally, an activation coefficient is included to represent the role of calcium ions interacting with troponin, highlighting the importance of Ca²⁺. It is found that maximum isometric muscle force decreases by 9.5% due to a reduction in pH from 7.4 to 6.5 and by 47.5% in case of the combination of a reduction in pH and an increase of P_i concentration up to 30 mM, respectively. Then the force decline caused by a fall in the active calcium ions is studied. When only 15% of the total calcium in the myofibrillar space is able to interact with troponin, up to 80% force drop is anticipated by the model. The proposed fatigued-injured muscle model is useful to study the effect of various shortening velocities and initial muscle-tendon lengths on muscle force; in addition, the benefits of the model go beyond predicting the force in different conditions as it can also predict muscle stiffness and power. The power and stiffness decrease by 40% and 6.5%, respectively, due to the pH reduction, and the simultaneous accumulation of H⁺ and P_i leads to a 50% and 18% drop in power and stiffness.

Keywords: Distribution moments; Huxley sliding filament model; Inorganic phosphate; Muscle fatigue; Musclectomy; pH reduction.