A Unified Framework for the Modeling of Physiological Control Systems

Abstract

Modeling of physiological systems is an important issue in the field of biomedical engineering. A good model can improve our knowledge of the dynamical behavior of the process under consideration, and allows the researchers to conduct in silico experiments, which are less expensive and time consuming. The goal of this paper consists of investigating the properties of a nonlinear dynamical system which is suitable of representing a large class of physiological control systems from the nano- to the macro-scale. The proposed model is characterized by a closed loop topology, where the negative feedback action is built into the system characteristics themselves, rather than being obtained through a comparator and a controller, as in classical engineered control systems. The existence and stability properties of the equilibrium points of the proposed nonlinear system are investigated. The physiological system involved into the glucose concentration regulation in the blood is discussed throughout the paper, in order to illustrate our approach.