System Analysis of a Programmed Cell Death Model

Apoptosis is a programmed cell death by which the organism removes unwanted cells. Its core reactions can be described by a system of differential equations exhibiting multiple steady-states. In this paper we analyse how this model can include both very slow dynamics for the lag phase before apoptosis (in theory up to several days) while the apoptosis itself is more switch-like with changes occurring within minutes. We both describe how the trajectories evolve during the lag phase and show which of the states have the most impact on the slow dynamics.