Characterizing cell proliferation process in the developing central nervous system.

MAZZEO J; RAPACIOLI M; SÁNCHEZ V; SCICOLONE G; D´ATTELLIS C; FLORES V

Boston, USA

Congreso; International Conference on Complex System. ICCS2006; 2006

International Complex System

"Characterizing cell proliferation process in the developing central nervous system" Mazzeo, J; Rapacioli, M.; V. Sánchez; G. Scicolone; C. D´Attellis and Flores,V. Interdisciplinary Group in Theoretical Biology; Favaloro University. Several cell developmental behaviors participate in the generation of structural pattern during embryonic growth of living organisms. A major interest in Developmental Biology is to assess their time and space organization and to conprenhend their specific roles in pattern creation. Our present study is focused on spatial organization of cell proliferation (CP), one of these cell behaviors. A classical approach for studying CP is based on statistical information about its distribution in space. We apply a less frequent approach which is based on the spatial distribution of  individual proliferating cells. We propose that fractal analysis, already applied in other fields of Biology, is also appropriate for this matter. The study is realized on numerical series built by recording, under microscopic observation, the position of each proliferating cell along the cephalic-caudal axis. CP is considered a stochastic point process. Self-similarity in these series is investigated. Our results, interpreted in the context of current knowledge of Developmental Biology, point out the existence of two different components in CP process: one is stochastic the other one is deterministic. Each one o them is characterized. The specific constraints that CP series impose to standard methods for scaling estimation are examined.