Cardiac electrophysiology in mice: a matter of size

Over the last decade, mouse models have become a popular instrument for studying cardiac arrhythmias. This review assesses in which respects a mouse heart is a miniature human heart, a suitable model for studying mechanisms of cardiac arrhythmias in humans and in which respects human and murine hearts differ. Section I considers the issue of scaling of mammalian cardiac (electro) physiology to body mass. Then, we summarize differences between mice and humans in cardiac activation (section II) and the currents underlying the action potential in the murine working myocardium (section III). Changes in cardiac electrophysiology in mouse models of heart disease are briefly outlined in section IV, while section V discusses technical considerations pertaining to recording cardiac electrical activity in mice. Finally, section VI offers general considerations on the influence of cardiac size on the mechanisms of tachy-arrhythmias.