Marked continuous-time Markov chain modelling of burst behaviour for single ion channels.
The cancer stem cell hypothesis has evolved to one of the most important paradigms in biomedical research. During recent years evidence has been accumulating for the existence of stem cell-like populations in different cancers, especially in leukemias. In the current work we propose a mathematical model of cancer stem cell dynamics in leukemias. We apply the model to compare cellular properties of leukemic stem cells to those of their benign counterparts....
Recent discovery of cancer stem cells in tumorigenic tissues has raised many questions about their nature, origin, function and their behavior in cell culture. Most of current experiments reporting a dynamics of cancer stem cell populations in culture show the eventual stability of the percentages of these cell populations in the whole population of cancer cells, independently of the starting conditions. In this paper we propose a mathematical model...
In this article, we analyse the process of the emergence of RNA polynucleotides located in an enclosed environment, at an early stage of the RNA world. Therefore we prepared a mathematical model, composed of a set of differential equations, which simulates the behaviour of an early biological system bounded by a protocell membrane. There is evidence that enclosed environments were available on the primordial Earth. There are also experimental proofs that RNA strands can develop in these formations....
Flow cytometric analysis using intracellular dyes such as CFSE is a powerful experimental tool which can be used in conjunction with mathematical modeling to quantify the dynamic behavior of a population of lymphocytes. In this survey we begin by providing an overview of the mathematically relevant aspects of the data collection procedure. We then present an overview of the large body of mathematical models, along with their assumptions and uses,...
Cell-based, mathematical models help make sense of morphogenesis—i.e. cells organizing into shape and pattern—by capturing cell behavior in simple, purely descriptive models. Cell-based models then predict the tissue-level patterns the cells produce collectively. The first step in a cell-based modeling approach is to isolate sub-processes, e.g. the patterning capabilities of one or a few cell types in cell cultures. Cell-based models can then identify the mechanisms responsible for patterning in...
Solid tumors and hematological cancers contain small population of tumor cells that are believed to play a critical role in the development and progression of the disease. These cells, named Cancer Stem Cells (CSCs), have been found in leukemia, myeloma, breast, prostate, pancreas, colon, brain and lung cancers. It is also thought that CSCs drive the metastatic spread of cancer. The CSC compartment features a specific and phenotypically defined cell...
Since cancer is a complex phenomenon that incorporates events occurring on different length and time scales, therefore multiscale models are needed if we hope to adequately address cancer specific questions. In this paper we present three different multiscale individual-cell-based models, each motivated by cancer-related problems emerging from each of the spatial scales: extracellular, cellular or subcellular, but also incorporating relevant information from other levels. We apply these hybrid...
This review aims at presenting a synoptic, if not exhaustive, point of view on some of the problems encountered by biologists and physicians who deal with natural cell proliferation and disruptions of its physiological control in cancer disease. It also aims at suggesting how mathematicians are naturally challenged by these questions and how they might help, not only biologists to deal theoretically with biological complexity, but also physicians to optimise therapeutics, on which last point the...
Mathematics Subject Classification: 65C05, 60G50, 39A10, 92C37In this paper the multi-dimensional Monte-Carlo random walk simulation models governed by distributed fractional order differential equations (DODEs) and multi-term fractional order differential equations are constructed. The construction is based on the discretization leading to a generalized difference scheme (containing a finite number of terms in the time step and infinite number of terms in the space step) of the Cauchy problem for...
The maintenance of a stable stem cell population in the epidermis is important for robust regeneration of the stratified epithelium. The population size is usually regulated by cell secreted extracellular signalling molecules as well as intracellular molecules. In this paper, a simple model incorporating both levels of regulation is developed to examine the balance between growth and differentiation for the stem cell population. In particular, the dynamics of a known differentiation regulator c-Myc,...