Abstract
Self-organization has proven to be a universal functioning property inherent to the open systems, including biological entities and living organisms. The flux of energy or matter through the system enables its transition to a new ordered state, which results from a cooperative behavior of the system’s constituents. The system functions far from thermodynamic equilibrium and its transitions between the states are treated within nonlinear models. An analysis of such behavior yields valuable information about the emergent properties of the particular system that is often impossible to obtain by other methods. This review summarizes some of the most interesting, recently reported phenomena related to dynamic self-organization and coherency at various complexity levels in living matter, demonstrating the widespread applications of these concepts in many modern fields of biological and healthcare research. The processes and interactions controlling self-organized behaviors are discussed in regards to molecular reactions, including mechanisms of protein folding, bioenergetics, and charge transfer. Phenomena in cells and tissues, as well as the examples of whole organs and organism levels are also reviewed. In addition, we analyze existing applications of self-organization and coherency processes in medicine. Special attention is given to determination of feedback mechanisms, control parameters, and order parameters needed to completely define the self-organized behavior and coherent dynamics of a particular system.
Highlights
The capability of stem cells to initiate morphogenesis in vitro, generating complex structures in culture that closely parallel their in vivo counterparts was reviewed recently, discussing the mechanisms based on dynamic self-organization and evaluating applications of such models for stem cell research, disease modeling, and regenerative medicine [261]
An imperative role of complex mathematical models based on the dynamic self-organization concept to provide realistic insights at individual-specific optimal movement solutions in sports medicine was discussed in a number of works
1) The common properties of biological systems, namely i) continuous in- and out-flow of matter and energy, ii) pronounced nonlinearities facilitated by strong feedback interactions, iii) time hierarchy for system’s variables that suggest slaving principle and existence of the order parameters, and iv) dissipation that always accompanies the system’s functioning support application of the dynamic self-organization concepts as defined by Prigogine [7] and Haken [9] in life sciences and healthcare research
Summary
A mainstream approach in studies of complex biological entities was their dismantling with the purpose of examining individual components. To appropriately describe processes occurring in a complex, multi-dimensional system and to take into account the feedback, relevant mathematical models of a dynamically self-organizing system introduce the socalled order parameters, which in all cases are the generalized dynamic variables that reflect collective action of various sets of parameters of the system on its behavior [8]. Multiple studies showed that these variables correlate well with the order parameters’ behaviors, uniquely characterizing various functional states (stable states, oscillations, spiral waves, deterministic chaos, and other attractors) of the system and allowing to use Lyapunov exponents and entropies in lieu of order parameters to analyze and predict emergent properties of the complex systems [12]-[15]. As soon as the model consistent with the experiment is built, further development may be focused on determination of important geometrical, physical, chemical, and physiological variables and properties of the system that stand behind the order parameters
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