title: The noise and the KISS in the cancer stem cells niche.
abstract: There is a persistent controversy regarding the frequency of cancer stem cells (CSCs) in solid tumors. Initial studies indicated that these cells had a frequency ranging from 0.0001% to 0.1% of total cells. Recent studies have shown that this does not seem to be always the case. Some of these studies have indicated a frequency of 40%. Through a simple population dynamics model, we studied the effects of stochastic noise and cellular plasticity in the minimal path size of a cancer stem cells population, similar to what is done in what is sometimes called the Kierstead-Skellam-Slobodkin (KISS) Size analysis. We show that the possibility of large variations in the results obtained in the experiments may be a consequence of the different conditions under which the different experiments are submitted, specifically regarding the effective cell niche size where stem cells are transplanted. We also show the possibility of a noise induced transition where the stationary probability distribution of the CSC population can present bimodality.
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Física, Instituto de Ciências Exatas, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, CP 702, CEP 31270-901 Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brasil. econofisico@gmail.com
authors.forename: Renato Vieira
authors.initials: RV
authors.lastname: Dos Santos
authors.forename: Linaena Méricy
authors.initials: LM
authors.lastname: da Silva
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D006801:Humans; D008954:Models, Biological; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology*; D014411:Neoplastic Stem Cells / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology; D059016:Tumor Microenvironment
keywords: Cancer stem cells; Diffusion; Minimal patch size; Plasticity; Stochastic modeling