dorsal/arxiv
View SchemaAging and Immortality in a Cell Proliferation Model
| Authors | T. Antal, K. B. Blagoev, S. A. Trugman, S. Redner |
|---|---|
| Categories | |
| ArXiv ID | q-bio/0609040 |
| URL | https://arxiv.org/abs/q-bio/0609040 |
| DOI | 10.1016/j.jtbi.2007.06.009 |
| Journal | Journal of Theoretical Biology 248, 411-417 (2007) |
Abstract
We investigate a model of cell division in which the length of telomeres within the cell regulate their proliferative potential. At each cell division the ends of linear chromosomes change and a cell becomes senescent when one or more of its telomeres become shorter than a critical length. In addition to this systematic shortening, exchange of telomere DNA between the two daughter cells can occur at each cell division. We map this telomere dynamics onto a biased branching diffusion process with an absorbing boundary condition whenever any telomere reaches the critical length. As the relative effects of telomere shortening and cell division are varied, there is a phase transition between finite lifetime and infinite proliferation of the cell population. Using simple first-passage ideas, we quantify the nature of this transition.
{
"annotation_id": "f498f646-4032-4cd4-b8c8-ba385a26c4be",
"date_created": "2026-03-02T18:01:34.969000Z",
"date_modified": "2026-03-02T18:01:34.969000Z",
"file_hash": "9be25e2f3c8f304497578c7a889e39683a0d133ff5e068a1175c09db5f2495a3",
"private": false,
"record": {
"abstract": "We investigate a model of cell division in which the length of telomeres\nwithin the cell regulate their proliferative potential. At each cell division\nthe ends of linear chromosomes change and a cell becomes senescent when one or\nmore of its telomeres become shorter than a critical length. In addition to\nthis systematic shortening, exchange of telomere DNA between the two daughter\ncells can occur at each cell division. We map this telomere dynamics onto a\nbiased branching diffusion process with an absorbing boundary condition\nwhenever any telomere reaches the critical length. As the relative effects of\ntelomere shortening and cell division are varied, there is a phase transition\nbetween finite lifetime and infinite proliferation of the cell population.\nUsing simple first-passage ideas, we quantify the nature of this transition.",
"arxiv_id": "q-bio/0609040",
"authors": [
"T. Antal",
"K. B. Blagoev",
"S. A. Trugman",
"S. Redner"
],
"categories": [
"q-bio.CB",
"cond-mat.stat-mech",
"physics.bio-ph"
],
"doi": "10.1016/j.jtbi.2007.06.009",
"journal_ref": "Journal of Theoretical Biology 248, 411-417 (2007)",
"title": "Aging and Immortality in a Cell Proliferation Model",
"url": "https://arxiv.org/abs/q-bio/0609040"
},
"schema_id": "dorsal/arxiv",
"source": {
"execution_id": "7366e3c3-d795-4a20-879b-16d8ba5cfa4d",
"id": "arXiv Dataset IDs",
"type": "Model",
"variant": "snapshot-2026-03-01",
"version": "0.1.0"
},
"user_id": 1000002
}