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Statistical and Mathematical Modeling of Spatiotemporal Dynamics of Stem Cells

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Stem Cell Mobilization

Part of the book series: Methods in Molecular Biology ((MIMB,volume 2017))

Abstract

Statistical and mathematical modeling are crucial to describe, interpret, compare, and predict the behavior of complex biological systems including the organization of hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells in the bone marrow environment. The current prominence of high-resolution and live-cell imaging data provides an unprecedented opportunity to study the spatiotemporal dynamics of these cells within their stem cell niche and learn more about aberrant, but also unperturbed, normal hematopoiesis. However, this requires careful quantitative statistical analysis of the spatial and temporal behavior of cells and the interaction with their microenvironment. Moreover, such quantification is a prerequisite for the construction of hypothesis-driven mathematical models that can provide mechanistic explanations by generating spatiotemporal dynamics that can be directly compared to experimental observations. Here, we provide a brief overview of statistical methods in analyzing spatial distribution of cells, cell motility, cell shapes, and cellular genealogies. We also describe cell-based modeling formalisms that allow researchers to simulate emergent behavior in a multicellular system based on a set of hypothesized mechanisms. Together, these methods provide a quantitative workflow for the analytic and synthetic study of the spatiotemporal behavior of hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells.

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Acknowledgments

The work presented in this paper is supported by Deutsche Krebshilfe (SyTASC grant number 70111969) and the German Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) (HaematoOPT grant number 031A424).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Carl Gustav Carus Faculty of Medicine, Institute for Medical Informatics and Biometry, TU Dresden, Dresden, Saxony, Germany

    Walter de Back, Thomas Zerjatke & Ingo Roeder

  2. Center for Information Services and High Performance Computing, TU Dresden, Dresden, Saxony, Germany

    Walter de Back

  3. National Center for Tumor Diseases (NCT), Partner Site Dresden, TU Dresden, Dresden, Saxony, Germany

    Ingo Roeder

Authors
  1. Walter de Back
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  2. Thomas Zerjatke
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  3. Ingo Roeder
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Correspondence to Ingo Roeder .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Internal Medicine II, Center for Medical Research, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany

    Gerd Klein

  2. Institute of Transfusion Medicine and Immunology, Medical Faculty Mannheim, Heidelberg University, Mannheim, Germany

    Patrick Wuchter

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de Back, W., Zerjatke, T., Roeder, I. (2019). Statistical and Mathematical Modeling of Spatiotemporal Dynamics of Stem Cells. In: Klein, G., Wuchter, P. (eds) Stem Cell Mobilization. Methods in Molecular Biology, vol 2017. Humana, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-9574-5_17

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-9574-5_17

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  • Publisher Name: Humana, New York, NY

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4939-9573-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4939-9574-5

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