Investigating the relation between stochastic differentiation, homeostasis and clonal expansion in intestinal crypts via multiscale modeling.

ABSTRACT: Colorectal tumors originate and develop within intestinal crypts. Even though some of the essential phenomena that characterize crypt structure and dynamics have been effectively described in the past, the relation between the differentiation process and the overall crypt homeostasis is still only partially understood. We here investigate this relation and other important biological phenomena by introducing a novel multiscale model that combines a morphological description of the crypt with a gene regulation model: the emergent dynamical behavior of the underlying gene regulatory network drives cell growth and differentiation processes, linking the two distinct spatio-temporal levels. The model relies on a few a priori assumptions, yet accounting for several key processes related to crypt

SUBMITTER: Graudenzi A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4037186 | biostudies-literature | 2014

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature