Transforming growth factor (TGF) β is known to have properties of both a tumor suppressor and a tumor promoter. While it inhibits cell proliferation, it also increases cell motility and decreases cell--cell adhesion. Coupling mathematical modeling and experiments, we investigate the growth and motility of oncogene--expressing human mammary epithelial cells under exposure to TGF--β. We use a version of the well--known Fisher--Kolmogorov equation, and prescribe a procedure for its parametrization. We quantify the simultaneous effects of TGF--β to increase the tendency of individual cells and cell clusters to move randomly and to decrease overall population growth. We demonstrate that in experiments with TGF--β treated cells \textit{in vitro}, TGF--β increases cell motility by a factor of 2 and decreases cell proliferation by a factor of 1/2 in comparison with untreated cells.
@article{arxiv.0710.5665,
title = {A mathematical model quantifies proliferation and motility effects of TGF--$\beta$ on cancer cells},
author = {Shizhen Emily Wang and Peter Hinow and Nicole Bryce and Alissa M. Weaver and Lourdes Estrada and Carlos L. Arteaga and Glenn F. Webb},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0710.5665},
year = {2009}
}
Comments
15 pages, 4 figures; to appear in Computational and Mathematical Methods in Medicine