Integrated cellular and gene interaction modelling of pattern formation.

Cellular behaviour depends on and also modifies protein concentration and activity. An integrated cellular and gene interaction model is proposed to reveal this relationship. In this model, protein activity varies spatiotemporally with cellular location, gene interaction, and diffusion. In the meanwhile, cellular behaviour can vary spatially, driven by cell-cell signalling and inhomogeneous protein distribution across cells. This model integrates two components. The first component adopts a variation of the reaction-diffusion mechanism at the gene expression level. The second component is a lattice cellular model based on the Differential Adhesion Hypothesis (DAH) for cell sorting at the cellular level. Cell sorting and tumour invasion were simulated to illustrate the model. This model approximates cellular pattern formation more closely than existing models based on cell density.