Delta-Notch Signaling with Cell Growth and Division

Here’s another multicellular, multiscale simulation using CompuCell3D and SOSlib. This is a more complex simulation as compared to the oscillating contact energies simulation I showed before (even if it is, perhaps, a little less visually interesting).

This simulation incorporates cell growth and division along with cell-cell communication through delta-notch signaling. ‘Internally’ there is a 2-ODE model running in association with each cell (I found this ODE model in Collier et al. 1996 and Eglen and Willshaw 2002). The numerical solution of these models (concurrently with the CC3D simulation) is accomplished using the SBML ODE Solver library (SOSlib). At the CC3D level, cell color is set depending on whether the internal (normalized) concentration of delta is above 0.5 or below 0.5. This is not intended to indicate distinct cell types. Rather, for visualization purposes, cell color is set in this manner.

Note that, with the creation of each new cell (by mitosis), a new SOSlib integrator instance must be created and associated with the new cell. The initial state of the new cell is set to be the same as the parent cell. However, as can be seen in the simulation, the child cell begins to behave in a manner distinct from the parent cell (as indicated by changing cell color).

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~ by bionetsolver on September 24, 2009.