Stochastic modeling of oligodendrocyte generation in cell culture: model validation with time-lapse data.
BACKGROUND
The purpose of this paper is two-fold. The first objective is to validate the assumptions behind a stochastic model developed earlier by these authors to describe oligodendrocyte generation in cell culture. The second is to generate time-lapse data that may help biomathematicians to build stochastic models of cell proliferation and differentiation under other experimental scenarios.


RESULTS
Using time-lapse video recording it is possible to follow the individual evolutions of different cells within each clone. This experimental technique is very laborious and cannot replace model-based quantitative inference from clonal data. However, it is unrivalled in validating the structure of a stochastic model intended to describe cell proliferation and differentiation at the clonal level. In this paper, such data are reported and analyzed for oligodendrocyte precursor cells cultured in vitro.


CONCLUSIONS
The results strongly support the validity of the most basic assumptions underpinning the previously proposed model of oligodendrocyte development in cell culture. However, there are some discrepancies; the most important is that the contribution of progenitor cell death to cell kinetics in this experimental system has been underestimated.
Hyrien
Ollivier
O
Department of Biostatistics and Computational Biology, University of Rochester, 601 Elmwood Avenue, Rochester, New York 14642, USA. Ollivier_Hyrien@urmc.rochester.edu
Ambeskovic
Ibro
I
Mayer-Proschel
Margot
M
Noble
Mark
M
Yakovlev
Andrei
A
D000465:Algorithms; D000818:Animals; D002453:Cell Cycle; D016923:Cell Death; D002454:Cell Differentiation; D002455:Cell Division; D002478:Cells, Cultured / Q000166:cytology; D016922:Cellular Senescence / Q000187:drug effects; D015993:Life Tables; D008954:Models, Biological; D009010:Monte Carlo Method; D009836:Oligodendroglia / Q000166:cytology* / Q000187:drug effects; D009900:Optic Nerve / Q000166:cytology; D011336:Probability; D051381:Rats; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric; D013269:Stochastic Processes; D013963:Thyroid Hormones / Q000494:pharmacology; D013995:Time; D014741:Video Recording / Q000379:methods
D013963:Thyroid Hormones