A Branching Process to Characterize the Dynamics of Stem Cell Differentiation.

ABSTRACT: The understanding of the regulatory processes that orchestrate stem cell maintenance is a cornerstone in developmental biology. Here, we present a mathematical model based on a branching process formalism that predicts average rates of proliferative and differentiative divisions in a given stem cell population. In the context of vertebrate neurogenesis, the model predicts complex non-monotonic variations in the rates of pp, pd and dd modes of division as well as in cell cycle length, in agreement with experimental results. Moreover, the model shows that the differentiation probability follows a binomial distribution, allowing us to develop equations to predict the rates of each mode of division. A phenomenological simulation of the developing spinal cord informed with the average cell cycl

SUBMITTER: Miguez DG 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4541069 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature