title: One-hit stochastic decline in a mechanochemical model of cytoskeleton-induced neuron death I: cell-fate arrival times.
abstract: Much experimental evidence shows that the cytoskeleton is a downstream target and effector during cell death in numerous neurodegenerative diseases, including Parkinson's, Huntington's, and Alzheimer's diseases. However, recent evidence indicates that cytoskeletal dysfunction can also trigger neuronal death, by mechanisms as yet poorly understood. This is the first of two papers in which we study a mathematical model of cytoskeleton-induced neuron death. In our model, assembly control of the neuronal cytoskeleton interacts with both cellular stress levels and cytosolic free radical concentrations to trigger neurodegeneration. This trigger mechanism is further modulated by the presence of cell interactions in the form of a diffusible toxic factor released by dying neurons. We find that, consistent with empirical observations, our model produces one-hit exponential and sigmoid patterns of cell dropout. In all cases, cell dropout is exponential-tailed and described accurately by a gamma distribution. The transition between exponential and sigmoidal is gradual, and determined by a synergetic interaction between the magnitude of fluctuations in cytoskeleton assembly control and by the degree of cell coupling. We conclude that a single mechanism involving neuron interactions and fluctuations in cytoskeleton assembly control is compatible with the experimentally observed range of neuronal attrition kinetics.
authors: Department of Medicine, Institute of Medical Science, University of Toronto, Room 7313, Medical Science Building, 1 Kings College Circle, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5S 1A8.
authors: Tatiana
authors: T
authors: Lomasko
authors: Geoff
authors: G
authors: Clarke
authors: Charles J
authors: CJ
authors: Lumsden
mesh_terms: D001696:Biomechanical Phenomena; D016923:Cell Death / Q000502:physiology; D003198:Computer Simulation; D003599:Cytoskeleton / Q000473:pathology*; D006801:Humans; D008959:Models, Neurological; D009410:Nerve Degeneration; D019636:Neurodegenerative Diseases / Q000473:pathology; D009474:Neurons / Q000473:pathology*; D013269:Stochastic Processes