@Article{IJNAMB-3-388, author = {RONALD BEGG, MOHAMMAD KOHANDEL AND SIV SIVALOGANATHAN}, title = {Self-Sustaining Sub-Populations of Progenitor Cells}, journal = {International Journal of Numerical Analysis Modeling Series B}, year = {2012}, volume = {3}, number = {4}, pages = {388--407}, abstract = {It has been established in several types of cancers, that the growth and maintenance of many cancers is due to a (typically small) sub-population of cells with stem-like properties: cells which are capable of indefinite self-renewal and of giving rise to all the different types of cells present in the cancer. The origins of these stem-like cancer cells are not entirely clear, and it has not been established if they originate from healthy stem-cells, healthy self-sustaining subpopulations of progenitor cells or even from mature, fully di erentiated cells by way of dedi erentiation. In this paper we investigate some mathematical problems which arise when one considers the possibility of cancer stem-cells arising from healthy progenitor cells (normally possessing limited division potential) which have been perturbed in some way, such as through mutation. For example, glial progenitors have been previously proposed as a possible source of gliomas. We model the progression from stem cell to mature cell where at each cell division we include a probability of a cell either advancing or regressing in maturity. Whereas in normal, healthy cell populations, cells will be more likely to advance in maturity, we suggest that the tendency to advance or regress in maturity may be altered by changes in the cell population such as mutation, and that this may cause the subpopulation of progenitor cells to become self-sustaining, leading to uncontrolled growth of this subpopulation. The conditions, according to our model, under which a population of progenitor cells is self-sustaining are then discussed.}, issn = {}, doi = {https://doi.org/}, url = {http://global-sci.org/intro/article_detail/ijnamb/291.html} }