Frequency response of assemblies of biological cells exposed to electric fields

For most cell types, gap junctions connect the interiors of neighbouring cells and provide the local intercellular communication that is essential for normal biological cell processes. In this work, we test the hypothesis that the frequency responses of gap-connected cells exposed to electric fields differ from those of isolated cells. The frequency responses of geometrically complex models of gap-connected cell configurations are evaluated using the finite element method. Results indicate that the inclusion of gap junctions changes the frequency behaviour of the cells. A group of gap-connected cells can be modeled as a lowpass filter cascaded with a bandstop filter. The lowpass filter corresponds to the frequency behaviour of a single cell with the same shape as the configuration. The bandstop filter represents the gap junctions. The characteristics of the stopband of this filter depend in a complex way on the properties of the gap junctions, such as area, conductivity and location