Modeling the Aging Heart: From Local Respiratory Defects to Global Rhythm Disturbances

In this issue, Baris et al. (2015) describe cardiac rhythm abnormalities in a mouse model of mitochondrial dysfunction in widely distributed cells of the aging human heart. How do a few metabolically challenged cells disrupt cardiac rhythm? We suggest that these cells provide “crystallization centers” for latent dysfunctional zones to allow arrhythmia emergence