Computational methods to study Ca2+-triggered secretion at the cellular level

doi: 10.6062/jcis.2012.03.01.0048(Free PDF)

Authors

Secretion is a widespread and fundamental physiological process that is tightly controlled by intracellular Ca^{2+} . Here, we present computational methods to study the functional dynamics of cellular secretion. We propose two computational schemes in order to reproduce the Ca^{2+} dynamics and exocytosis associated to different spatiotemporal scales: a microscopic scheme, suitable for fast spatiotemporal processes and a whole-cell scheme, suitable for slower (larger) scales. Some results showing the dynamic behaviour of two specific cell types are included in order to show the interest of a computational approach to gain insight about the molecular aspects of secretion, as well as to make theoretical predictions.

calcium dynamics, stochastic methods, deterministic methods.

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