scholarly journals A free boundary model of epithelial dynamics

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ruth E Baker ◽  
Andrew Parker ◽  
Matthew J Simpson
Keyword(s):  
Differential Equation ◽  
Boundary Condition ◽  
Partial Differential Equation ◽  
Free Boundary ◽  
Continuum Limit ◽  
Equation Model ◽  
Free Boundary Condition ◽  
Partial Differential ◽  
Cell Dynamics ◽  
The Continuum

AbstractIn this work we analyse a one-dimensional, cell-based model of an epithelial sheet. In this model, cells interact with their nearest neighbouring cells and move deterministically. Cells also proliferate stochastically, with the rate of proliferation specified as a function of the cell length. This mechanical model of cell dynamics gives rise to a free boundary problem. We construct a corresponding continuum-limit description where the variables in the continuum limit description are expanded in powers of the small parameter 1/N, where N is the number of cells in the population. By carefully constructing the continuum limit description we obtain a free boundary partial differential equation description governing the density of the cells within the evolving domain, as well as a free boundary condition that governs the evolution of the domain. We show that care must be taken to arrive at a free boundary condition that conserves mass. By comparing averaged realisations of the cell-based model with the numerical solution of the free boundary partial differential equation, we show that the new mass-conserving boundary condition enables the coarsegrained partial differential equation model to provide very accurate predictions of the behaviour of the cell-based model, including both evolution of the cell density, and the position of the free boundary, across a range of interaction potentials and proliferation functions in the cell based model.

ESTIMATES FOR APPROXIMATE SOLUTIONS TO A FUNCTIONAL DIFFERENTIAL EQUATION MODEL OF CELL DIVISION

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-20
Author(s):  
STEPHEN TAYLOR ◽  
XUESHAN YANG
Keyword(s):  
Differential Equation ◽  
Partial Differential Equation ◽  
Cell Division ◽  
Nonnegative Function ◽  
Approximate Solutions ◽  
Equation Model ◽  
Order Partial Differential Equation ◽  
Partial Differential ◽  
First Order ◽  
Functional Differential

Abstract The functional partial differential equation (FPDE) for cell division, $$ \begin{align*} &\frac{\partial}{\partial t}n(x,t) +\frac{\partial}{\partial x}(g(x,t)n(x,t))\\ &\quad = -(b(x,t)+\mu(x,t))n(x,t)+b(\alpha x,t)\alpha n(\alpha x,t)+b(\beta x,t)\beta n(\beta x,t), \end{align*} $$ is not amenable to analytical solution techniques, despite being closely related to the first-order partial differential equation (PDE) $$ \begin{align*} \frac{\partial}{\partial t}n(x,t) +\frac{\partial}{\partial x}(g(x,t)n(x,t)) = -(b(x,t)+\mu(x,t))n(x,t)+F(x,t), \end{align*} $$ which, with known $F(x,t)$ , can be solved by the method of characteristics. The difficulty is due to the advanced functional terms $n(\alpha x,t)$ and $n(\beta x,t)$ , where $\beta \ge 2 \ge \alpha \ge 1$ , which arise because cells of size x are created when cells of size $\alpha x$ and $\beta x$ divide. The nonnegative function, $n(x,t)$ , denotes the density of cells at time t with respect to cell size x. The functions $g(x,t)$ , $b(x,t)$ and $\mu (x,t)$ are, respectively, the growth rate, splitting rate and death rate of cells of size x. The total number of cells, $\int _{0}^{\infty }n(x,t)\,dx$ , coincides with the $L^1$ norm of n. The goal of this paper is to find estimates in $L^1$ (and, with some restrictions, $L^p$ for $p>1$ ) for a sequence of approximate solutions to the FPDE that are generated by solving the first-order PDE. Our goal is to provide a framework for the analysis and computation of such FPDEs, and we give examples of such computations at the end of the paper.

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