title: The general growth logistics of cell populations.
abstract: An increment model based on thermodynamics lays bare that the cell size distributions of archaea, prokaryotes and eukaryotes are optimized and belong to the same universal class. Yet, when a cell absorbs mass or signals are processed, these conditions are disturbed. Relaxation re-installs ideal growth conditions via an exponential process with a rate that slows down with the cell size. In a growing ensemble, a distribution of relaxation modes comes in existence, exactly defined by the universal cell size distribution. The discovery of nano-mechanic acoustic activities in cells led us to assume that in a growing ensemble acoustic signals may contribute significantly to the transmission of essential information about growth-induced disturbances to all cells, initiating that way coordinated relaxation. The frequency increases with the cell number shortening the period between successive signals. The completion of rearrangements occurring at a constant rate is thus progressively impaired, until cellular growth stops, totally. Due to this phenomenon, the so-called "relaxation-frequency-dispersion" cell colonies should exhibit a maximum cell number. In populations with large cell numbers, subsystems, behaving similar-like colonies, should form network-like patterns. Based on these ideas, we formulate equations that describe the growth curves of all cell types, verifying that way the general nature of the growth logistics.
authors.affiliation: Abteilung Experimentelle Physik, Universität Ulm, Albert-Einstein Allee 11, 89069, Ulm, Germany. hanns-georg.kilian@uni-ulm.de
authors.forename: H G
authors.initials: HG
authors.lastname: Kilian
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Bartkowiak
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Kaufmann
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Kemkemer
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D016466:CHO Cells; D002453:Cell Cycle; D045744:Cell Line, Tumor; D049109:Cell Proliferation; D006224:Cricetinae; D003412:Cricetulus; D003470:Culture Media; D004926:Escherichia coli / Q000166:cytology; D006801:Humans; D008544:Melanocytes / Q000166:cytology; D051379:Mice; D008954:Models, Biological; D012441:Saccharomyces cerevisiae / Q000166:cytology
chemical_list: D003470:Culture Media