Modeling cell populations metabolism and competition under maximum power constraints
Fig 4
Competing cell populations system.
The diagram in (A) represents a system made of normal cells competing with its malignant (cancerous) counterpart for common limited resources. Each single population is seen as a system that produces and consumes ATP, following the model in Fig 2. In addition, populations compete for space in the tissue and interact by means of an effective biochemical interaction which favors the death of the competitor. Each process dissipates energy under the form of heat that sinks at the bottom of the diagrams. Panel (B) shows the mathematical model for the system. It highlights the physical observables: external primary energy inflow, Jin, the net power inflows, P1 and P2, for the respective cells’ stocks, Q1 (normal PCs) and Q2 (neoplastic PCs), and the heat flow, Jh, the stock N of resources (shared by Q1 and Q2); the biochemical antagonistic interaction is parametrized by I1 and I2.