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Multitype age-dependent branching processes and cell cycle analysis
Journal article   Peer reviewed

Multitype age-dependent branching processes and cell cycle analysis

Charles J. Mode
Mathematical biosciences, v 10(3), pp 177-190
1971
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/0025-5564(71)90058-7

Abstract

In this article a model of the cell cycle based on the theory of multitype age-dependent branching processes is developed. The article begins with a brief description of the G 1, S, G 2, and M phases of the cell cycle, and in Section 2 a detailed account of the application of the theory of multitype age-dependent branching processes to cell cycle analysis is given. By letting each phase of the cell cycle correspond to a type in the general theory of multitype age-dependent branching processes, it is possible to derive formulas for the frequencies of cells in each of the four phases in a large population of dividing cells. In section 3 it is shown how those formulas for the theoretical frequencies of cells in each of the four phases G 1, S, G 2, and M may be used to estimate the mean time a cell spends in each phase, providing we have estimates of the frequencies of cells in each phase in a large population of dividing cells and the total mean generation time of a cell. Finally, a numerical example is given illustrating how the formulas developed in the article may be used in cell cycle analysis. The principal novelty of the results presented in this article center around a statistical method that allows an experimenter to estimate, in a precise way, the mean time a cell spends in each of the four phases G 1, S, G 2, and M from the frequencies of these phases in a large population of dividing cells.

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