title: Sensitivity and flexibility of regular and chaotic calcium oscillations.
abstract: Sensitivity and flexibility are important properties of biological systems. These properties are here investigated for intracellular calcium oscillations. For a particular model, we comparatively investigate sensitivity and flexibility of regular and chaotic Ca(2+) oscillations. For this model, we obtain two main results. First, sensitivity of the model system to parameter shifting does not depend on the complexity of Ca(2+) oscillations. We observe, however, that both regular and chaotic Ca(2+) oscillations are highly sensitive in regions close to bifurcation points. Second, also flexibility of Ca(2+) oscillations does not significantly depend on the type of Ca(2+) oscillations. Our results show that regular as well as chaotic Ca(2+) oscillations in the studied model are highly flexible in regimes with weak dissipation. Both results are discussed in the sense of possible biological importance.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, Faculty of Education, University of Maribor, Koroska cesta 160, SI-2000, Maribor, Slovenia.
authors.forename: Matjaz
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Perc
authors.forename: Marko
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Marhl
mesh_terms: D002118:Calcium / Q000378:metabolism*; D020013:Calcium Signaling; D002477:Cells / Q000166:cytology / Q000378:metabolism; D008954:Models, Biological; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D013997:Time Factors
chemical_list: D002118:Calcium