title: Senescence and antibiotic resistance in an age-structured population model.
abstract: Different theories have been proposed to understand the growing problem of antibiotic resistance of microbial populations. Here we investigate a model that is based on the hypothesis that senescence is a possible explanation for the existence of so-called persister cells which are resistant to antibiotic treatment. We study a chemostat model with a microbial population which is age-structured and show that if the growth rates of cells in different age classes are sufficiently close to a scalar multiple of a common growth rate, then the population will globally stabilize at a coexistence steady state. This steady state persists under an antibiotic treatment if the level of antibiotics is below a certain threshold; if the level exceeds this threshold, the washout state becomes a globally attracting equilibrium.
authors.affiliation: Department of Mathematics, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, 32611-8105, USA. deleenhe@ufl.edu
authors.forename: Patrick
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: De Leenheer
authors.forename: Jack
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Dockery
authors.forename: Tomás
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Gedeon
authors.forename: Sergei S
authors.initials: SS
authors.lastname: Pilyugin
mesh_terms: D000375:Aging / Q000502:physiology*; D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents / Q000494:pharmacology* / Q000627:therapeutic use; D001419:Bacteria / Q000254:growth & development*; D001424:Bacterial Infections / Q000188:drug therapy*; D019149:Bioreactors; D024881:Drug Resistance, Bacterial / Q000187:drug effects*; D006801:Humans; D008954:Models, Biological
chemical_list: D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents