title: Application of a random network with a variable geometry of links to the kinetics of drug elimination in healthy and diseased livers.
abstract: This paper discusses an application of a random network with a variable number of links and traps to the elimination of drug molecules from the body by the liver. The nodes and links represent the transport vessels, and the traps represent liver cells with metabolic enzymes that eliminate drug molecules. By varying the number and configuration of links and nodes, different disease states of the liver related to vascular damage have been simulated, and the effects on the rate of elimination of a drug have been investigated. Results of numerical simulations show the prevalence of exponential decay curves with rates that depend on the concentration of links. In the case of fractal lattices at the percolation threshold, we find that the decay of the concentration is described by exponential functions for high trap concentrations but transitions to stretched exponential behavior at low trap concentrations.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, University of Warwick, Coventry CV4 7AL, UK.
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Chelminiak
authors.forename: J M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Dixon
authors.forename: J A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Tuszyński
authors.forename: R E
authors.initials: RE
authors.lastname: Marsh
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D003198:Computer Simulation; D022781:Hepatocytes / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D007700:Kinetics; D008099:Liver / Q000378:metabolism*; D008107:Liver Diseases / Q000378:metabolism*; D008657:Metabolic Clearance Rate; D008954:Models, Biological; D015233:Models, Statistical; D004364:Pharmaceutical Preparations / Q000378:metabolism*; D010599:Pharmacokinetics; D015398:Signal Transduction / Q000502:physiology*
chemical_list: D004364:Pharmaceutical Preparations