Effect of cellular dedifferentiation on the growth of cell lineages

Abstract

We construct a cell lineage model with coupled reaction-diffusion partial differential equations. The population dynamics can be obtained analytically and verified numerically. With cellular dedifferentiation it will change the number of homogeneous steady states, unify the wavefront profiles and promote propagating speeds of cell lineage. Especially in three-stage cell lineage, with jumpwise dedifferentiation the population and propagation speeds of cell lineage depend on the product of all cells’ differentiation/dedifferentiation rates; with stepwise dedifferentiation the population and propagation speeds depend on the intra-group product and inter-group product of all cells’ differentiation/dedifferentiation rates respectively. Furthermore in redistributing the cell lineage population more stem cells can be produced by jumpwise dedifferentiation than by stepwise dedifferentiation. The propagation of cell lineages can be promoted by stepwise dedifferentiation with fast movement of middle cells or jumpwise dedifferentiation with high death rate of middle cells though the proportion of stem cells is different. Possible relations to cancer development and therapy will be discussed.