Bayesian inference on the Allee effect in cancer cell line populations using time-lapse microscopy images
Journal article, 2023

The Allee effect describes the phenomenon that the per capita reproduction rate increases along with the population density at low densities. Allee effects have been observed at all scales, including in microscopic environments where individual cells are taken into account. This is great interest to cancer research, as understanding critical tumour density thresholds can inform treatment plans for patients. In this paper, we introduce a simple model for cell division in the case where the cancer cell population is modelled as an interacting particle system. The rate of the cell division is dependent on the local cell density, introducing an Allee effect. We perform parameter inference of the key model parameters through Markov Chain Monte Carlo, and apply our procedure to two image sequences from a cervical cancer cell line. The inference method is verified on in silico data to accurately identify the key parameters, and results on the in vitro data strongly suggest an Allee effect

Agent based models/individual based model

Population size

Stochastic differential equations

Reaction-diffusion mechanisms

Cancer modelling

MCMC

Author

Gustav Lindwall

Chalmers, Mathematical Sciences, Applied Mathematics and Statistics

Philip Gerlee

Chalmers, Mathematical Sciences, Applied Mathematics and Statistics

Journal of Theoretical Biology

0022-5193 (ISSN) 1095-8541 (eISSN)

Vol. 574 111624

Focus on glioblastoma: using patient-derived cell lines to decipher tumour expansion and evaluate new treatments

Swedish Foundation for Strategic Research (SSF) (SB16-0066), 2019-01-01 -- 2021-12-31.

Subject Categories

Probability Theory and Statistics

Cancer and Oncology

DOI

10.1016/j.jtbi.2023.111624

PubMed

37769802

More information

Latest update

7/9/2024 2